Energy oozes from Soho’s every pore: the capital’s party core and epitome of London cool. Techno music bounces off the inside walls of eclectic record stores, and into the narrow aroma-filled mosaic of alleyways. Artists, modish media types, tailors, market traders, dealers, and musicians pack themselves into this square mile pocket of London where radical, and counter-cultural ideals emanate from the streets.

In medieval times Soho was predominately farmland (hence the name ‘Soho’ which derives from an old hunting call) but, in the 16th and 17th centuries the region became grounds for London's aristocracy. Only when the City of London in the east became too crowded, after the Great Fire of 1666, did Soho become residential. 

In the early 18th century the district's wealthy residents left their Soho Square pads for the new-found Mayfair, replaced by writers, radicals, artists and foreign immigrants, chiefly Italians. Among the first residents were Greek Christians, remembered by Greek Street, and on Frith Street Richard Frith constructed many of the houses.

Soho’s long had an explosive arts scene, and creative people from Mozart to Behan have flocked here, allured by Soho’s edgy nature. In Tudor times the area was a hunting ground of open fields and duck ponds, and what began as a royal park gradually deteriorated into squalor, slums, and sex shops in the '60s and '70s.

Soho and sex have long been synonymous, but today the peep shows are giving way to über-trendy clothing stores, funky jazz clubs, and cutting-edge production houses.

Soho’s not the sleazy red light district of yesteryear, and its seedy reputation exceeds itself. In the '80s legislation was introduced to reduce the number of sex establishments which had sprouted up in the decades prior, and since then the area has cleaned up its image dramatically.

The rental market in Soho is now very buoyant, and freehold houses are scarce. The demand for the area's real estate far outweighs the availability as a large cross section of potential tenants, from celebrities and city high-flyers to students, all want a piece of the action.

Far removed from the highly trafficked tourist haunts of Trafalgar and Leicester Squares, Soho prides itself on being the spiritual home of the British film industry. The hub comprises of specialty bookstores, jewel-box theatres, and repertory cinemas, but the Italian coffee houses, heaving gay scene, and diverse selection of ethnic restaurants are what make Soho most celebrated.

By Abbey Stirling/MOLI