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Save our Soho from clean crusade
Mark Blunden21 Jun 2010
Soho is losing its unique atmosphere because of crackdowns on vice and an influx of chain restaurants, according to historians.
BBC presenter Dan Cruickshank is leading calls for Westminster council and police to stop trying to “sanitise” the district.
The council has announced a drive against drug dealers, street prostitutes and unlicensed sex shops, as well as drunken and anti-social behaviour, in an attempt to clean up the area before the expected influx of visitors for the 2012 Olympics.
A police operation this month led to 50 arrests, including 10 for Class-A drugs. But historians and residents say late-night revelry and all that goes with it are part the area's character. Cruickshank, a member of Black's club in Dean Street, said a similar crackdown 20 years ago failed.
The 60-year-old, who presented Around the World in 80 Treasures on BBC2, added: “Soho is almost beyond recovery and I find it rather heartbreaking. Now it attracts chain shops, chain bars and chain restaurants and is no longer unconventional or curious. If the drunk and disorderly are people who come from outside as somewhere to hang out it's not on. But equally, a sense of wildness and inventive roughness creates some artistic individuals who do some interesting things.”
Soho is still home to celebrated bars, clubs and restaurants, and is the hub of London's gay scene. Cruickshank said sex shops had long been part of the local scene. Tailor John Pearse, whose Meard Street shop is visited by stars such as Ronnie Wood, said: “Soho is as clean as it needs to be. It's important not to lose the Soho spirit.”
Office assistant Francesca Galluzzo, 24, added: “These crackdowns are ruining the atmosphere and will just move drug dealers and sex workers elsewhere. I feel safer walking through Soho at night than I do in the City.” Juliet Peston, 48, of the Soho Society, said: “If people are not causing any harm, why do the police and Westminster want to criminalise them?”
The council has introduced measures to cut crime. Soho businesses are now linked to each other, the police and the CCTV control centre by radio. Extra street lighting has been installed, door recesses used for drug dealing are being sealed off, and gardens redesigned so they cannot be used for loitering.
More than 60 pedicabs have been seized and some £500,000 of illegal pornography destroyed following 22 raids on unlicensed sex shops.
Other locals welcome the crackdown. Barman Shane O'Brien, 22, said: “Dealers selling heroin, cocaine and MDMA have become very blasé.” Westminster council leader Colin Barrow said: “The area has lots to offer but the drugs trade and its problems aren't among them.”
Reader views (2)
Soho in the mid-60's was a fan-tas-tic place to visit. During the day it was the hub of the British film industry and many American companies ( Warner Bros., Columbia, Paramount) had offices there too.
At night the jazz clubs,amusement arcades, coffee bars, drinking clubs, strip clubs and clip joints gave it the sleazy b-movie atmosphere it was famous for...now nearly all long gone.
It was sometimes a little scary, but for a young teenager it was Nirvana...
- Jargonaut, South London, 21/06/2010 15:12
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Still the hub of london's gay scene perhaps, but only just. Increasingly new venues are opening in places like Vauxhall, whereas those in Soho are fairly tired old spots. I can't think of a new gay venue that has opened in the past 4 or 5 years in Soho, the only new places are, as outlined in the article, chain pubs and restaurants for tourists.
- Headhunter, London, 21/06/2010 12:25
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