Soho in the 1970s was the busiest square mile in London. The streets smelled of diesel fumes and roasted Italian coffee. Neon signs in bright pink and yellow lit up the narrow alleys even during the day. This neighborhood never slept. Crowds pushed past each other on the sidewalks of Old Compton Street. Most men wore wide trousers and long hair, while music spilled out of every basement doorway.
The area was famous for its red-light district. Paul Raymond ran the Revuebar, which sat at the center of the nightlife scene. Red bulbs glowed in the windows of shops selling adult magazines and films. Large posters of performers lined the entrances to theaters. Police officers walked their beats in pairs to keep a close eye on the basement clubs. It was a place of vice, but it was also where the city’s most colorful characters lived.
Music defined the decade in these streets. The Marquee Club on Wardour Street hosted loud rock bands every night of the week. Young people with safety pins in their clothes waited in long lines to see new punk acts. At Ronnie Scott’s, jazz musicians played until the sun came up. You could buy the latest vinyl records at small shops tucked away in Berwick Street. These shops were packed with wooden crates full of rock and soul albums.
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Daytime Soho had a different energy. Italian families ran small grocery stores and cafes. At Bar Italia, workers drank strong espresso while standing at the counter. The Berwick Street Market was a maze of fruit stalls and vegetable carts. Traders shouted their prices over the noise of the traffic. In the middle of the decade, huge piles of trash sat on the street corners because of city-wide strikes. Residents walked past the bags without looking twice.
Wardour Street was the center of the British film industry. Film reels were carried between offices in heavy metal cans. Messengers on motorbikes wove through the traffic to deliver these movies to the preview theaters. Every street corner had a cinema showing double features or low-budget horror movies.
The local pubs were the heart of the community. Writers and artists gathered at The French House to drink wine and argue about books. At The Coach and Horses, the room was always thick with cigarette smoke. People sat on velvet stools and shared stories about the actors they saw in the nearby West End theaters. These buildings were old and cramped, but they were the social center of the neighborhood.
