SOHO (Not on the Monopoly Board, but couldn't resist)

    Soho got its name from Henry the VIII’s hunting times. When a hunter spotted a deer they would shout ‘Tally-Ho’, but with smaller prey they would yell ‘So-Ho’.

    The area started to be developed after the Great Fire of London in 1666, when over 13,000 houses were destroyed and 100,000 citizens left homeless. Soho, then called Soho Fields, was the obvious choice for the wealthy to build their property, being within easy reach of the royal palaces of Westminster, Whitehall and St James’s. Eventually the rich moved west, towards Mayfair and St James’s.

       NB (Great) Marlborough Street is in Soho but has a Monopoly square of its own. So it’s already been done and dusted.

     …. this was the third and last London nail bomb attack inside two weeks by David Copeland, a self-confessed racist and homophobe. Thankfully there have been no serious incidents since.

     In 1953 Dylan Thomas left the only copy of Under Milk Wood in the Admiral Duncan. A BBC producer eventually claimed the reward for finding it which was to keep the handwritten manuscript. He later sold it for £2000.

    Trivia alert: Adam Faith took his name from the most popular boys and girls names at the time.

    On a recent lunch (Jan 2023) Poppies was quite busy but almost all the customers seemed to be tourists, including a Chinese group of 20. So it appears to be the goto place for authentic fish and chips with formica-top tables, large portions, mushy peas, white bread and butter, etc – a tad pricey but very tasty. And don’t even think of asking for chilli sauce when there’s a bottle of Sarsons malt vinegar on every table.

      Complimentary vintage sweets add to the nostalgia, especially the Black Jacks ….

                                  2020s                                                               1950s

              ….. the wrapping might be less offensive, but the taste is the same as when I was a kid. And you still end up with a black tongue.

    L’Escargot, at 48 Greek Street, was established in 1927 by George Gaudin who farmed snails in the basement so as to be the only English restaurant serving them fresh. The logo above the main door is Gaudin riding a snail.  His motto was ‘slow but sure’, referencing the snail, not the service. The restaurant was originally called Bienvenue but Gaudin’s customers persuaded him to change the name.

     I had to have l’escargot starter (£16), being careful not to ping any towards an adjoining table. But I discovered one of my shells was empty. “Per’aps eet ees ‘iding” said la waitress. But, having scrutinised the empty shell, she brought me another six snails.

 

    Opposite L’Escargot is the Montagu Pyke, now a Wetherspoons pub. From 1988 until 1995 it was the final home of The Marquee Club, one of London’s most important rock venues, having moved from Wardour Street (more on that later). The premises were originally built by Montagu Pyke in 1911 as his sixteenth - and final - cinema.

     In 2019 the Coach and Horses was granted a nudist licence allowing staff and customers to be naked whilst in the pub. Disappointingly there is no evidence of this.

     I recently read the definitive collection of Jeffrey’s weekly column. It is a master class in observational humour written by someone in a permanent state of inebriation. How I wish I could write that well. Maybe I should drink more. And hang around in Soho pubs.

    Kirsty MacColl's best known songs are ....

    There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis;  A New England, her biggest solo hit, written by Billy Bragg with the memorable lines …

    "I loved you then as I love you still
    Though I put you on a pedestal, you put me on the pill"

…. and most notably on The Pogues Fairytale of New York, regularly voted the best-ever Christmas single. The Pogues were originally called Pogue Mahone – Gaelic for “kiss my arse”.

    Kirsty MacColl also composed They Don’t Know which was a smash hit for Tracy Ullman in 1983.  Kirsty’s original backing track was used on the recording and she sang some of the notes Ullman couldn’t manage.

 

     Lawrence Wright was, in 1911, the first music publisher to operate from Denmark Street from where he founded the Melody Maker in 1926. The New Musical Express (my bible) also began life there in 1952.

      Pop stars socialised at the Gioconda Café …..

      … and the Rolling Stones’ Not Fade Away was the first major hit to be recorded at Regent Sounds Studio …

      It was at Mills Music in Denmark Street that Paul Simon was told Homeward Bound and The Sound of Silence were not commercial.

     Ronnie Scott's was also the last place Jimi Hendrix played live when he was invited up on stage to perform with Eric Burdon's War. Jimi died 48 hours later.

      Antonio Canaletto lodged at 41 Beak Street, a house built in the 1680s, for nine years. His stay is commemorated with a rare and ornate Royal Doulton plaque which dates from 1925. Appropriately, Polpo has been serving Venetian-style food here since 2009. There are no Canaletto’s on the walls.

        As well as being considered one of the founders of modern epidemiology, Snow was also a leader in the development of anaesthesia being the first to study it scientifically. He administered chloroform to Queen Victoria in 1852 at the birth of Prince Leopold. From that day it became known as “Chloroform a la Reine” whenever used in childbirth.

     9 Kingly Street

     This used to be the Bag O'Nails Music Club. It was where Paul McCartney met Linda Eastman at a Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames gig in 1967. It is also where The Jimi Hendrix Experience first played live as a band. Until recently there were two plaques by the door. Hopefully they will reappear once the new wine bar opens .....

         

       Much more interesting for many is the ‘Spirit of Soho’ mural on the side of the Stones shop. It features many of the famous figures who have lived in Soho.

    Dylan Thomas also liked a drink which probably explains why he kept losing copies of Under Milk Wood.

     A final word or two from Jeffrey Bernard: “I’d very much like to wake up one morning with a cow of the Friesian variety and walk her down to Soho to the Coach and Horses, stopping on the way to buy twenty Players, ply her with vodkas until closing time, whip her off to an Indian restaurant, take her up to the Colony Room till 5.30 and then to the Yorkminster, Swiss Tavern, Three Greyhounds, get beaten up by Chinese waiters at midnight, have a row with the taxi driver, set the bed on fire, put it out with tears and then wake up on the floor. Could you then milk said cow? I doubt it.”

FEBRUARY, 2024 UPDATE:

      NEW, recommended .....

Manzi's Fish and Seafood Restaurant

  

               .... recent addition to the Wolseley group; located just off Soho Square. Great food and service, reasonable prices - the Prix Fixe is £24.50 for three courses.

     Update: There are now other options to fish.