Friday, October 18, 2013

disappearing Soho

card in walk up at 70A Berwick Street Soho
I took this photo on Tuesday this week. It is a card that was on display in the hallway of the walk up at 70A Berwick Street in Soho. It shows one of the two women who were working there that day, informing potential customers what she is like. Yesterday I went back and there were no cards there. From what I can gather the police have insisted that all these cards in Soho are removed.

This card was not visible from the street, you would have to walk through the open doorway and along the hallway to see them. I have been told that the ones that used to be visible from the street at a lot of the walk ups went a couple of weeks ago. I don't know what the legal basis of this police action is, it seems that they are making more and more demands. No one knows where it will end. What you see in Soho could be gone forever the next time you look.

5 comments:

mongerplanet said...

I not live far from Soho, Never rated it as a good red light district or punting location. Would rather travel the other side of the world than Soho. I know there are exceptions. The irony is it could be the worlds best red light district if we could discard this morality image we have in this country.

Anonymous said...

I've been plenty of times since you wrote this, still all there and in good workng order throughout Soho

Bête de Nuit said...

It is likely that one or two of the walk ups in Peter Street will close in January.

Anonymous said...

Thought you may like to see this
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/ng-interactive/2013/nov/london-chinatown-then-and-now

jaca

Bête de Nuit said...

What a lovely photograph. I have been looking for photos of Soho in the old days and there don't seem to be many of them showing the women out on the street soliciting as they used to do.

Chinatown is part of Soho so I have read. I wonder if at the time this photo was taken this area had as many Chinese businesses as it does today. It used to be Limehouse a long time ago and there was also Oriental City on the Edgeware Rd that has closed down.