Soho

Soho is an area of London's West End in the City of Westminster. It is roughly the area bounded by Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square to the south, and Charing Cross Road in the east. The area to the west is known as Mayfair.

Soho and the sex industry

The Soho area has been at the heart of Britain's sex industry for at least 50 years. In the 1970s, in an area stretching from Chinatown along Wardour Street, and up Old Compton Street, there were over 250 unlicensed sex shops, cinemas, clip joints and illegal bars, a number of brothels and many freelance prostitutes either soliciting on the street or offering their services from staircases with doors open to the street. The Metropolitan Police Vice Squad at this time suffered from several corrupt police officers involved with enforcing organised crime control of the area.

Related Topics:
Sex industry - 1970s - Chinatown - Metropolitan Police - Vice Squad - Organised crime

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By the 1980s purges of the police force along with tightening of controls by the City of Westminster led to a crackdown on illegal premises. By the year 2000 a relaxing of censorship and the licensing or closing of unlicensed sex shops had reduced the area to around Brewer Street and Berwick Street. Still, several of the strip clubs in the area were reported in London's Evening Standard newspaper in February 2003 to be rip-offs (known as 'clip joints'), aiming to intimidate customers into handing over their money and valuables. Prostitution is still widespread in parts of Soho, with many buildings used as brothels, and there is a persistent problem with drug dealing on some street corners.

Related Topics:
City of Westminster - Censorship - Sex shop - Strip club - Evening Standard - Clip joint - Prostitution - Drug dealing

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It has, however, never lost its hardy residential community; and it includes Soho Primary School on Great Windmill Street which is attended by the local children.

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