Why we love Soho

Liz Hoggard
10 Dec 2009

For the past 30 years, writer and DJ Princess Julia, 49, has been partying hard in Soho, including a 15-year stint living on Dean Street and Berwick Street.

A night owl, she jokes that she could literally roll out of bed at 11pm and walk across the street to work.

Given her distinctive association with W1, it's not surprising her face is on the cover of the newly published book Soho Lives, a veritable love letter to the West End's most interesting enclave and its inhabitants, both past and present.

Soho's princess recently DJ-ed at the birthday party of her friend, artist Sue Webster, at the new Mark Hix restaurant on Brewer Street, where guests included Kate Moss, Bella Freud and Nick Cave. But she also knows Soho's gritty, hidden venues.

Her favourite tips include club night The Trannie Shack at Madame Jojo's on Wednesday nights and
the new 'Circus' in Endel Street run by Dick, the former barman at the Atlantic Bar and The Colony Room.

"Soho has always had that seedy element, which I find really attractive," she says, "though you do have to look harder to find it these days. But there's still a scene around Old Compton Street, with all the gay bars."

As music editor of i-D magazine and co-editor of The P.I.X music zine (recently namechecked by the New York Times), Julia spends a lot of time in the record shops of Berwick Street, such as Sister Ray. "And on Tuesday nights at Madame Jojo's they have White Heat, where you can find a lot of new indie bands."

She prefers to mix vintage and modern clothes, so Beyond Retro is another favourite. And her friend runs the tattoo parlour on Frith Street just beyond Bar Italia.

A native Londoner, Julia's love affair with Soho started young.

"Since I was a child, I've always thought Soho was magical," she recalls. "I was born in Hackney and grew up in north-east London. My dad is Hungarian and in the Sixties we couldn't get any of his favourite foods. So once a month we'd go to Soho to shop in the wonderful Italian delicatessens such as Lina Stores on Brewer Street. You couldn't get fresh pasta anywhere else."

She lived in Bloomsbury and off Regent Street in her twenties but became a fully-fledged Soho inhabitant at the age of 30.

"The Colony Room was my local: they actually made me an honorary member. I'd go and meet Pam Hogg and then we'd go clubbing afterwards."

But then Princess Julia has history. One of the first-ever female DJs, she came to notice as a Blitz kid in the early Eighties, along with Marc Almond and Boy George. She was a resident DJ at the legendary Kinky Gerlinky nightclub and appeared in Visage's 1981 Fade to Grey video.

When the director Baillie Walsh was shooting Boy George's controversial 1990 pop video Generations of Love in Soho, he persuaded her to play a key role. Along with fellow "club celebrities" such as David Holah, Les Child and Sue Tilly (who went on to model for Lucian Freud), she was cast as a young prostitute in the streets of downtown London.

"We shot it in Raymond's Revue Bar and around the pubs and clip joints of Old Compton Street," she recalls. "We couldn't get permission to shoot in Old Compton Street so we hid in my friend's hairdresser's until the coast was clear, then ran out and filmed until they told us to stop. Leigh Bowery was the stylist. I was in a leotard. I wasn't allowed make-up - just Vaseline on my face. Look it up on YouTube - it really captures what Soho was like."

She's seen a lot of changes over the years. The Colony has gone. They've bulldozed the Astoria, along with clubs such as The Ghetto - where she used to DJ - to make way for the new Tottenham Court Road station. "Soho is mostly bars and theatreland these days," she says, but she approves of the new posh members' club at the top of Centrepoint.

And she loves the way you can turn a corner and bump into a leading advertising creative, then around the next come The Rubbishmen - Soho's Victorian punk revivalists. "They're quite natty dressers with big beards and tweed suits, and they have this shambolic band.

"I travel around the world a lot. Williamsburg in New York, Plastic in Milan," she continues. "A lot of Brits are moving to Berlin but there's nowhere like London, that's why I stay here. And Soho is the true original. It has this fabulous balance of art, music and fashion - everything melds and flows together.

"Plus we have the best café life. You can literally hang out on the streets, or sit and people-watch. You bump into everyone in your life if you stay here long enough."

Oscar Owide, 77

Who: Owner of The Windmill, a high-end, table-dancing club. In 1931 it became the first venue in London to stage nude shows thanks to the original founder, Laura Henderson, who was portrayed by Judi Dench in the 2005 film Mrs Henderson Presents. Oscar bought his first club on Swallow Street in 1971 and The Windmill in 1993. At one point he owned almost every club on Swallow Street and has been dubbed the "King of Soho".

Loves Soho because: "What may seem unacceptable elsewhere is the norm in Soho. It's having a wonderful revival, what with the number of new restaurants, bars and clubs opening."

Soho moments: "When The Windmill opened its doors once more in 1993. The original features and our slogan 'we never closed' still exist after all this time."

Tom Baker, 43

Who: Owner of Tom Baker bespoke tailors, he moved to London in 1991. Apprenticed on Savile Row, he began his own business in Soho in 1996. Lived there until "the alcohol got the better of me" in 2004 when he moved to Maida Vale.

Loves Soho because: "It can be a very intense life here but you know you're truly passionate about a place when you tire of it rarely and always return to it quickly. It's the array of characters that is so interesting."

Soho moments: "I once bumped into Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin in the dry cleaner's on Berwick Street. He was with his son who was looking for a wedding suit and I ended up making the suit and being invited to the wedding. I also met my namesake, the actor Tom Baker, on Berwick Street. That was great as I was the subject of much persecution as a child, thanks to him."

Ann Dolerius, 33

Who: Originally Swedish, she has worked in and around Soho for the past six years and managed the Cloth House for the last year. She lives in Kilburn Park.

Loves Soho because: "It feels like you are in a completely different world. You don't have the masses of people that you get elsewhere in London. The people here can be anything from the working girl down the street to business people and fashion students - and they vary hugely from one end of the street to the other."

Soho moments: "The woman who would come into the shop with a parrot on her shoulder to the guy who makes hats who is covered in piercings."

Bernie Katz, 41

Who: Manager of The Groucho Club. Has worked in Soho for nearly 25 years. Lives in Blackheath.

Loves Soho because: "Those of us who work here become so much a part of it and so much like locals even though the people who really live here are quite hidden. Every night is different and whatever each night holds, it's always special."

Soho moments: "About five years after a Groucho Club staff charity swim we all collapsed in Soho Square. It soon materialised that everybody in the square knew each other through a few degrees of separation and it suddenly turned into an impromptu party with music that went on into the night."

Miranda Venkanah-Hill, 20

Who: Illustrator and former employee of Yumchaa tea shop on Berwick Street. Sits in Yumchaa or Soho Square every day drawing - she secretly drew a woman she followed around Soho for her final degree project in art and design.

Loves Soho because: "The extravagant characters. When I worked behind the counter I'd make up stories and lives for them, giving them nicknames and imagining what they get up to after dark in Soho."

Soho moments: "Making Frank Skinner drink chilli tea. He came in and asked for the most interesting tea we had so I gave him a Chilli Chilli Bang Bang, which is Rooibos with chilli. He didn't like it."

Ross Forsythe, 23

Who: Sales assistant at Simply Pleasures sex shop and freelance stylist. Worked in Soho for three years while studying at London College of Fashion. Lives in Hackney.

Loves Soho because: "You can be completely open about your sexuality here. You can walk down the street holding hands and feel completely safe."

Soho moments: "The nights that involve lots of alcohol, narcotics, high heels and glitter. And all those times in Caffé Nero at 4am."

Michele Wade, 52

Who: Associated with café-patisserie Maison Bertaux in Greek Street for 30 years. "I started as a Saturday girl so it's been like a long love affair." Her sister Tania runs the art gallery above the shop.

Loves Soho because: "People bumble along so well together. I remember at one Gay Pride there was a family up seeing Mary Poppins comfortably sitting next to people dressed in leather and masks."

Soho moments: "Chatting to a beautiful lady with a lovely husband and little boy called Kingston. I said: "I love reggae music." The staff were practically having a heart attack in the kitchen. It was Gwen Stefani!"

Larry Lomotey, 24

Who: Junior creative at Stage One Storeyboards, based on Great Chapel Street. Lives in Fulham.

Loves Soho because: "Everybody is a bit different here so I don't stick out. And there's nothing you could want that you can't get in Soho."

Soho moments: "I bumped into Stephen Fry once. He came round the corner and I just said: 'Oh, it's Stephen Fry.' He just smiled and walked on."

Yasmina Bentaieb, 33

Who: French freelance make-up artist who centres her work and social life in Soho. "So many of my friends are gay because of the line of work I'm in. They're hairdressers, stylists and make-up artists, so I'm for ever going out in Soho."

Loves Soho because: "I love the craziness - you never know how your night is going to end up. And you get such a variety of people: the posh and the funky."

Soho moments: "I have a friend who runs a make-up school in Soho and whenever we go out we end up having a late-night party back at his school building. Those nights are always great."

Interviews by Jasmine Gardner

Soho Lives is published by Start Creative in aid of The House of St Barnabas homeless charity, price £25. Available from www.startcreative.com, Soho Books and Amazon.co.uk.