126-630: Wardour Street ( / ˈ w ɔːr d ɔːr / ) is a street in Soho , City of Westminster, London. It is a one-way street that runs north from Leicester Square , through Chinatown , across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street . Throughout the 20th century the West End street became a centre for the British film industry and the popular music scene. There has been a thoroughfare on the site of Wardour Street on maps and plans since they were first printed,
252-490: A "nude entertainment" venue until 1981. The upstairs became known as the Boulevard Theatre and in 1980 was adopted as a comedy club called " The Comic Strip " by a small group of alternative comedians including Rik Mayall , Dawn French , Jennifer Saunders , Alexei Sayle and Adrian Edmondson , before they found wider recognition with the series The Comic Strip Presents on Channel 4 . The name and control of
378-656: A close, arranging mountain-top parties with enormous plum puddings . The British Geological Survey was founded in 1835 as the Ordnance Geological Survey under Henry De la Beche , and remained a branch of the Ordnance Survey until 1965. At the same time, the uneven quality of the English and Scottish maps was being improved by engravers under Benjamin Baker . By the time Colby retired in 1846,
504-572: A drugs raid. The Harmony Inn was a hang-out for musicians on Archer Street operating during the 1940s and 1950s. The Ken Colyer Band's 51 Club, a venue for traditional jazz , opened on Great Newport Street in 1951. Blues guitarist and harmonica player Cyril Davies and guitarist Bob Watson launched the London Skiffle Centre, London's first skiffle club, on the first floor of the Roundhouse pub on Wardour Street in 1952. It
630-470: A façade of terracotta and coloured brick designed by Aston Webb . A significant event in the history of epidemiology and public health was John Snow 's study of an 1854 outbreak of cholera in Soho. He identified the cause of the outbreak as water from the public pump at the junction of Broad Street (now Broadwick Street ) and Cambridge Street (now Lexington Street), close to the rear wall of what
756-531: A fire in the Tower of London , the headquarters of the survey was moved to Southampton taking over buildings previously occupied by a military orphanage (the Royal Military Asylum ) in 1841, and Yolland was put in charge, but Hall sent him off to Ireland so that when Hall left in 1854 Yolland was again passed over in favour of Major Henry James . Hall was enthusiastic about extending the survey of
882-479: A large range of paper maps and digital mapping products. The Ordnance Survey's flagship digital product, launched in November 2001, is OS MasterMap , a database that records, in one continuous digital map, every fixed feature of Great Britain larger than a few metres. Every feature is given a unique TOID (TOpographical IDentifier), a simple identifier that includes no semantic information. Typically, each TOID
1008-400: A large windmill, about 50 yards to the west of what is now St Anne's Church , roughly on the current alignment of Great Windmill Street . The name Colmanhedge Lane did not last, and a 1682 map by Ogilby and Morgan shows the lane split into three parts. The northern part is shown as SO HO , the middle part Whitcomb Street and the remainder, from James Street south, is Hedge Lane . It
1134-465: A new parish of St Anne was established for it. The parish stretched from Oxford Street in the north to Leicester Square in the south and from what is now Charing Cross Road in the east to Wardour Street in the west; it therefore included all of contemporary eastern Soho, including the Chinatown area. The western portion of modern Soho, around Carnaby Street, was part of the parish of St James , which
1260-585: A new survey based on Airy 's spheroid in 1858, completing the Principal Triangulation . The following year, he completed an initial levelling of the country. After the Ordnance Survey published its first large-scale maps of Ireland in the mid-1830s, the Tithe Act 1836 led to calls for a similar six-inch to the mile survey in England and Wales . Official procrastination followed, but
1386-501: A proportion of its profits to the Treasury. In 2010, OS announced that printing and warehouse operations were to be outsourced, ending over 200 years of in-house printing. The Frome-based firm Butler, Tanner and Dennis (BT&D) secured its printing contract. As already stated, large-scale maps had not been printed at the Ordnance Survey since the common availability of geographical information systems (GISs), but, until late 2010,
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#17327727182951512-610: A rallying call for his men at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, half a century after the name was first used for this area of London. The Soho name has been reused by other entertainment and restaurant districts such as SoHo, Hong Kong , which derives its name from being located south of Hollywood Road , and the cultural and commercial area of Soho in Málaga , Spain. The New York City neighbourhood of SoHo, Manhattan , gets its name from its location south of Houston Street , but
1638-477: A second edition of the town plans: by 1909 only fourteen places had paid for updates. The review determined that revision of 1:2500 mapping should proceed apace. The most detailed mapping of London was the OS's 1:1056 survey between 1862 and 1872, which took 326 sheets to cover the capital; a second edition (which needed 759 sheets because of urban expansion) was completed and brought out between 1891 and 1895. London
1764-526: A small area around Berwick Street. Much of the business has been reported to have been run by Albanian gangs. By the end of 2014, gentrification and competition from the internet had reduced the number of flats in Soho used for prostitution (see Soho walk-up ), but the area remains a red-light district and a centre of the sex industry in London. The National Hospital for Diseases of the Heart and Paralysis
1890-516: A small mosque on Berwick Street. The French Protestant Church of London , the only one of its kind in the city and constructed in the Flemish Gothic style, has been at Nos. 8–9 Soho Square since 1893. The music scene in Soho can be traced back to 1948 and Club Eleven , generally regarded as the first venue where modern jazz, or bebop , was performed in the UK. It closed in 1950 following
2016-583: Is associated with a polygon that represents the area on the ground that the feature covers, in National Grid coordinates. OS MasterMap is offered in themed layers, each linked to a number of TOIDs. In September 2010, the layers were: Topography: Integrated transport network: Imagery Address: Address 2: ITN was withdrawn in April 2019 and replaced by OS MasterMap Highways Network The Address layers were withdrawn in about 2016 with
2142-440: Is also a reference to London's Soho. The Pittsburgh neighbourhood of Uptown was also formerly called Soho, most likely having been named by its founder James Tustin after the London district, though it may refer to Soho, West Midlands . Soho has never been an administrative unit with formally defined boundaries; it is about 1 square mile (2.6 km ) in area, and is usually considered to be bounded by Shaftesbury Avenue to
2268-460: Is not clear from the map where the boundary between SO HO and Whitcombe Street is—probably somewhere between Compton Street and Gerrard Street . These three names are on the Morden and Lea map of 1682. Wardour Street was renamed and building began in 1686, as shown by a plaque formerly on the house at the corner with Broadwick Street. Sir Edward Wardour owned land in the area, and Edward Street
2394-662: Is still in operation, but The Bridge was sold to Miloco Studios in 2009, and relocated to the Orinoco Studios Complex at 36 Leroy Street in Greater London. White Lightning also opened a third studio at 16 Dufours Place, named Space Facilities, in late 1995, but it closed in the same year The Bridge was sold. Twentieth Century House in Soho Square was built in 1937 for Twentieth Century Fox . The British Board of Film Classification , formerly known as
2520-577: Is today the John Snow public house . Snow mapped the addresses of the sick and noted that they were mostly people whose nearest access to water was the Broad Street pump. He persuaded the authorities to remove the handle of the pump, thus preventing any more of the infected water from being collected. The spring below the pump was later found to have been contaminated with sewage. This is an early example of epidemiology, public health medicine and
2646-525: The British Board of Film Classification offices. The area has been popular for restaurants since the 19th century, including the long-standing Kettner's which was visited by numerous celebrities. Near to Soho is London's Chinatown , centred on Gerrard Street and containing several restaurants and shops. The name "Soho" first appears in the 17th century. The name is derived from a former hunting cry. James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth , used "soho" as
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#17327727182952772-647: The British Library . Roy later had an illustrious career in the Royal Engineers (RE), rising to the rank of General, and he was largely responsible for the British share of the work in determining the relative positions of the French and British royal observatories. This work was the starting point of the Principal Triangulation of Great Britain (1783–1853), and led to the creation of the Ordnance Survey itself. Roy's technical skills and leadership set
2898-534: The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory and St Patrick's Church in Soho Square. The aristocracy had mostly moved away by the mid-19th century, when Soho was particularly badly hit by an outbreak of cholera in 1854. For much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation as a base for the sex industry in addition to its night life and its location for the headquarters of leading film companies. Since
3024-722: The Copyright Libraries hold complete or near-complete collections of pre-digital OS mapping. The origins of the Ordnance Survey lie in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745 . Prince William, Duke of Cumberland realised that the British Army did not have a good map of the Scottish Highlands to locate Jacobite dissenters such as Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat so that they could be put on trial. In 1747, Lieutenant-Colonel David Watson proposed
3150-629: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) appointed Steve Blair as the Chief Executive of the Ordnance Survey. The Ordnance Survey supported the launch of the Slow Ways initiative, which encourages users to walk on lesser used paths between UK towns. On 7 February 2023, ownership of Ordnance Survey Ltd passed to the newly formed Department for Science, Innovation and Technology . The Ordnance Survey produces
3276-876: The Middle Ages , the area that is now Soho was farmland that belonged to the Abbot and Convent of Abingdon and the master of Burton St Lazar Hospital in Leicestershire , who managed a leper hospital in St Giles in the Fields . In 1536, the land was taken by Henry VIII as a royal park for the Palace of Whitehall . The area south of what is now Shaftesbury Avenue did not stay in the Crown possession for long; Queen Mary sold around 7 acres (2.8 ha) in 1554, and most of
3402-541: The New Romantic movement in the early 1980s, originally met at Billy's. The club changed its name to Gossip's and became part of London's clubland heritage by spawning several weekly club-nights that influenced British music and fashion during the 1980s. Gerrard Street is the centre of London's Chinatown , and along with Lisle Street and Little Newport Street, house a mix of import companies, oriental food shops and restaurants. Street festivals are held throughout
3528-619: The OS Explorer and OS Landranger series were printed in Maybush. In April 2009 building began of a new head office in Adanac Park on the outskirts of Southampton. By 10 February 2011 virtually all staff had relocated to the new "Explorer House" building and the old site had been sold off and redeveloped. Prince Philip officially opened the new headquarters building on 4 October 2011. On 22 January 2015 plans were announced for
3654-553: The Ordnance Survey National Grid 1:1250s, 1:2500s and 1:10,560s after the Second World War. During World War I, the Ordnance Survey was involved in preparing maps of France and Belgium . During World War II, many more maps were created, including: After the war, Colonel Charles Close , then Director General, developed a strategy using covers designed by Ellis Martin to increase sales in
3780-644: The Pilgrims' Way in the North Downs labelled the wrong route, but the name stuck. Similarly, the spelling of Scafell and Scafell Pike copied an error on an earlier map, and was retained as this was the name of a corner of one of the Principal Triangles , despite "Scawfell" being the almost universal form at the time. Colby believed in leading from the front, travelling with his men, helping to build camps and, as each survey session drew to
3906-549: The Raymond Revuebar owned by entrepreneur Paul Raymond , and music clubs such as the 2i's Coffee Bar and the Marquee Club . Trident Studios was based in Soho, and the nearby Denmark Street has hosted numerous music publishing houses and instrument shops from the 20th century onwards. The independent British film industry is centred around Soho, including the British headquarters of Twentieth Century Fox and
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4032-744: The Street Offences Act 1959 drove prostitution off the streets, many clubs such as the Blue Lagoon at No. 50 Carnaby Street became fronts for it. Gangs controlled the clubs and the prostitutes, and the police were bribed. In 1960 London's first sex cinema, the Compton Cinema Club (a members-only club to get around the law), opened at 56 Old Compton Street. It was owned by Michael Klinger and Tony Tenser who later produced two early Roman Polanski films, including Repulsion (1965). As post-war austerity relaxed into
4158-458: The "swinging '60s", clip joints also surfaced; these unlicensed establishments sold coloured water as champagne with the promise of sex to follow, thus fleecing tourists looking for a "good time". Harrison Marks , a "glamour photographer" and girlie magazine publisher, had a photographic gallery on Gerrard Street and published several magazines in the 1950s and '60s. The model Pamela Green prompted him to take up nude photography, and she remained
4284-525: The 18th century. It initially opened as the Palais de Luxe in 1910 as a small cinema, but was unable to compete with larger venues and was converted into a theatre by Howard Jones. It re-opened in December 1931, but was still unsuccessful. In 1932, the general manager Vivian Van Damm introduced a non-stop variety show throughout the afternoon and evening. It was famous for its nude tableaux vivants , in which
4410-481: The 1980s, the area has undergone considerable gentrification . It is now predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices, with only a small remnant of sex industry venues. London's gay community is centred on Old Compton Street in Soho. Soho's reputation as a major entertainment district of London stems from theatres such as the Windmill Theatre on Great Windmill Street and
4536-498: The 1:10,560 "six inches to the mile " scale in the 1950s.) These large scale maps are typically used in professional land-use contexts and were available as sheets until the 1980s, when they were digitised . Small-scale mapping for leisure use includes the 1:25,000 "Explorer" series, the 1:50,000 "Landranger" series and the 1:250,000 road maps. These are still available in traditional sheet form. Ordnance Survey maps remain in copyright for 50 years after their publication. Some of
4662-538: The 21st century, it had acquired around 400 flats. St Anne's Church in Dean Street was refurbished after decades of neglect, and a Museum of Soho was established. On 30 April 1999, the Admiral Duncan pub on Old Compton Street, which serves the gay community, was damaged by a nail bomb that left three dead and 30 injured. The bomb was the third that had been planted by David Copeland , a neo-Nazi who
4788-497: The 21st century. Though the Earls of Leicester and Portland had intended Soho to be an upper-class estate comparable to Bloomsbury , Marylebone and Mayfair , it never developed as such. Immigrants began to settle in the area from around 1680 onwards, particularly French Huguenots after 1688. The area became known as London's French quarter. The French church in Soho Square was founded by Huguenots and opened on 25 March 1893, with
4914-462: The 3rd and 4th of February 2020. All road junctions connecting to the streets closed during retrieval of the bomb fragments as well. Soho is near the heart of London's theatre area . It is home to the Soho Theatre , built in 2000 to present new plays and comedy. The Windmill Theatre was based on Great Windmill Street, and was named after a windmill at this location that was demolished in
5040-454: The Board received the newer Ramsden theodolite (an improved successor to the one that Roy had used in 1784), and work began on mapping southern Great Britain using a 5 mi (8 km) baseline on Hounslow Heath that Roy himself had previously measured; it crosses the present Heathrow Airport . In 1991, Royal Mail marked the bicentenary by issuing a set of postage stamps featuring maps of
5166-508: The British Board of Film Censors, has been based in Soho Square since 1950. Soho's key fibre communications network has been managed by Sohonet since 1995, which connects the Soho media and post-production community to British film studios such as Pinewood and Shepperton , along with other locations worldwide include HBO and Warner Brothers . In the 2010s, research commissioned by Westminster City Council showed 23 per cent of
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5292-770: The Hon David Tennant as a place where writers, artists and musicians could mingle with the upper crust and eat and drink at affordable prices for the next three decades. In May 1979 the Gargoyle's uppermost room started hosting a weekly club-night on Saturdays called the Comedy Store , which made the reputations of many of the UK's upcoming " alternative comedians ". Among the original lineup here were Alexei Sayle , Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who broke away in 1980 to establish The Comic Strip team at Raymond's Revue Bar, before they found wider recognition with
5418-518: The Kentish village of Hamstreet . In 1801, the first one-inch-to-the-mile (1:63,360 scale) map was published, detailing the county of Kent , with Essex following shortly afterwards. The Kent map was published privately and stopped at the county border, while the Essex maps were published by the Ordnance Survey and ignored the county border, setting the trend for future Ordnance Survey maps. During
5544-524: The Sheffields, and recorded their first four albums and filmed the video for Bohemian Rhapsody at Trident. Other artists who recorded at Trident include David Bowie , Elton John , Free and Thin Lizzy . It closed as a general-purpose recording studio in 1981, but has since reopened in various guises, including providing sound and mixing services for television. Although technically not part of Soho,
5670-514: The Soho Society and new and tighter licensing controls by the City of Westminster led to a crackdown on illegal premises. The number of sex industry premises dropped from 185 in 1982 to around 30 in 1991. By 2000, substantial relaxation of general censorship , the ready availability of non-commercial sex, and the licensing or closing of unlicensed sex shops had reduced the red-light area to just
5796-481: The Windmill. It closed on 31 October 1964 and was again turned into a cinema. The Raymond Revuebar at No. 11 Walker's Court was a small theatre specialising in striptease and nude dancing. It was owned by Paul Raymond and opened in 1958. The facade supported a brightly lit sign declaring it to be the "World Centre of Erotic Entertainment". Raymond subsequently bought the lease of the Windmill and ran it as
5922-571: The adjacent Denmark Street is known for its connections with British popular music , and is nicknamed the British Tin Pan Alley due to its large concentration of shops selling musical instruments. The Sex Pistols lived beneath No. 6 and recorded their first demos there. Jimi Hendrix , the Rolling Stones and David Bowie have all recorded at studios on Denmark Street and Elton John wrote his hit " Your Song " in
6048-412: The application of science—the germ theory of disease —in a real-life crisis. Science writer Steven Johnson has written about the changes related to the cholera outbreak, and notes that almost every building on the street that existed in 1854 has since been replaced. A replica of the pump, with a memorial plaque and without a handle (to signify Snow's action to halt the outbreak) was erected in 1992 near
6174-643: The area. From 1935, the Shim Sham Club , an unlicensed jazz club popular with black and gay audiences run by Ike Hatch , and its successor the Rainbow Roof, were at 37 Wardour Street. The Flamingo Club was situated at numbers 33-37 from 1957 until 1967. The Vortex Club at 203 Wardour Street is mentioned in a song by the Jam , "A-Bomb in Wardour Street". Based in the discothèque Crackers, in 1977
6300-432: The capital since the 19th century. The area was developed from farmland by Henry VIII in 1536, when it became a royal park. It became a parish in its own right in the late 17th century, when buildings started to be developed for the upper class, including the laying out of Soho Square in the 1680s. St Anne's Church was established during the late 17th century, and remains a significant local landmark; other churches are
6426-522: The centre of Southampton (made worse by the bomb damage of the Second World War). The bombing during the Blitz devastated Southampton in November 1940 and destroyed most of the Ordnance Survey's city centre offices . Staff were dispersed to other buildings and to temporary accommodation at Chessington and Esher, Surrey, where they produced 1:25000 scale maps of France, Italy, Germany and most of
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#17327727182956552-539: The centre of the fledgling rock scene in London. Clubs included the Flamingo Club , a regular gig for Georgie Fame , Ronan O'Rahilly 's The Scene , which opened in 1963 and catered for the Mod movement with regular attendees including Steve Marriot and Andrew Loog Oldham , and jazz clubs like Ronnie Scott's , which opened in 1959 at 39 Gerrard Street and moved to 47 Frith Street in 1965. Soho's Wardour Street
6678-481: The city's court complex. The new head office building was designed by the Ministry of Public Building and Works for 4000 staff, including many new recruits who were taken on in the late 1960s and early 1970s as draughtsmen and surveyors. The buildings originally contained factory-floor space for photographic processes such as heliozincography and map printing, as well as large buildings for storing flat maps. Above
6804-758: The club hosted early concerts by punk bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees , the Slits and Adam and the Ants . From 1964 to 1988, number 90 was the site of the Marquee Club , and since the late 1960s, number 159 has been the home of the St Moritz nightclub. The Eric Gilder School of Music was at 195 Wardour Street (its original building is now demolished). The street is home to more than 30 restaurants and bars north of Shaftesbury Avenue . South of Shaftesbury Avenue there are many well-known Chinese restaurants including
6930-455: The compilation of a map of the Highlands to help in pacifying the region. In response, King George II charged Watson with making a military survey of the Highlands under the command of the Duke of Cumberland. Among Watson's assistants were William Roy , Paul Sandby and John Manson. The survey was produced at a scale of 1 inch to 1,000 yards (1:36,000) and included " the Duke of Cumberland's Map " (primarily by Watson and Roy), now held in
7056-423: The creative force in their business. By the 1970s, the sex shops had grown from the handful opened by Carl Slack in the early 1960s. From 1976 to 1982, Soho had 54 sex shops, 39 sex cinemas and cinema clubs, 16 strip and peep shows, 11 sex-oriented clubs and 12 licensed massage parlours. The proliferation of sex shops dissuaded some people from visiting Soho. The growth of the sex industry in Soho during this time
7182-457: The culture of Soho through our vibrant and diverse content". There is no playlist policy, and presenters are allowed to play any music they like. In 2016, it was voted the world's best radio station at Mixcloud 's Online Radio Awards. Soho is home to numerous religious and spiritual groups. St Anne's Church on Wardour Street was built between 1677 and 1686, possibly to the design of Sir Christopher Wren or William Talman . An additional tower
7308-433: The development of the railways added to pressure that resulted in the Ordnance Survey Act 1841 ( 4 & 5 Vict. c. 30). This granted a right to enter property for the purpose of the survey. Following a fire at its headquarters at the Tower of London in 1841 the Ordnance Survey relocated to a site in Southampton and was in disarray for several years, with arguments about which scales to use. Major-General Sir Henry James
7434-459: The earliest being Elizabethan . In 1585, to settle a legal dispute, a plan of what is now the West End was prepared. The dispute was about a field roughly where Broadwick Street is today. The plan was very accurate and clearly gives the name Colmanhedge Lane to this major route across the fields from what is described as "The Waye from Vxbridge to London" ( Oxford Street ) to what is now Cockspur Street . The old plan shows that this lane follows
7560-459: The early 1940s, the OS produced many "restricted" versions of the County Series maps and other War Department sheets for War Office purposes, in a variety of large scales that included details of military significance such as dockyards, naval installations, fortifications and military camps. Apart from a brief period during the disarmament talks of the 1930s, these areas were left blank or incomplete on standard maps. The War Department 1:2500s, unlike
7686-525: The ensuing neglect by rich and fashionable London, and the lack of the redevelopment that characterised the neighbouring areas. The aristocracy had mostly disappeared from Soho by the 19th century, to be replaced by prostitutes , music halls and small theatres. The population increased significantly, reaching 327 inhabitants per acre by 1851, making the area one of the most densely populated areas of London. Houses became divided into tenements with chronic overcrowding and disease. The 1854 cholera outbreak caused
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#17327727182957812-421: The high standard for which the Ordnance Survey became known. Work was begun in earnest in 1790 under Roy's supervision, when the Board of Ordnance (a predecessor of part of the modern Ministry of Defence ) began a national military survey starting with the south coast of England. Roy's birthplace near Carluke in South Lanarkshire is today marked by a memorial in the form of a large OS trig point . By 1791,
7938-419: The industrial areas were extensive office areas. The complex was notable for its concrete mural. Celestial , by sculptor Keith McCarter and the concrete elliptical paraboloid shell roof over the staff restaurant building. In 1995, the Ordnance Survey digitised the last of about 230,000 maps, making the United Kingdom the first country in the world to complete a programme of large-scale electronic mapping. By
8064-456: The information now being available in the AddressBase products – so as of 2020, MasterMap consists of Topography and Imagery. Pricing of licenses to OS MasterMap data depends on the total area requested, the layers licensed, the number of TOIDs in the layers, and the period in years of the data usage. OS MasterMap can be used to generate maps for a vast array of purposes and maps can be printed from OS MasterMap data with detail equivalent to
8190-417: The land was granted freehold in 1698 by William III to William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland , while the southern part of Soho was sold piecemeal in the 16th and 17th centuries, partly to Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester . Soho was part of the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields , forming part of the Liberty of Westminster . As the population started to grow, a new church was provided, and in 1687
8316-629: The large Wong Kei at 41–43. A London County Council blue plaque on Wong Kei's commemorates costume designer and wigmaker Willy Clarkson whose business was based in the building. The street crosses, or meets with, Lisle Street , Gerrard Street, Rupert Court, Dansey Place, Shaftesbury Avenue, Winette Street, Tisbury Court, Old Compton Street, Brewer Street, Bourchier Street, Peter Street, Tyler's Court, Flaxman Court, Broadwick Street, St Anne's Court , Sheraton Street, D'Arblay Street , Hollen Street, Noel Street and Oxford Street. The street signs of Wardour Street appear in both English and Chinese, where
8442-438: The late 1990s technological developments had eliminated the need for vast areas for storing maps and for making printing plates by hand. Although there was a small computer section at the Ordnance Survey in the 1960s, the digitising programme had replaced the need for printing large-scale maps, while computer-to-plate technology (in the form of a single machine) had also rendered the photographic platemaking areas obsolete. Part of
8568-411: The latter part of the century. Wright was used for picture frames by the new National Gallery from at least 1856, when they made the large new frame for the Adoration of the Magi by Paolo Veronese that is still in place. The phrase " Wardour Street English " denotes the use of near-obsolete words purely for effect. An example is anent , a preposition , meaning "concerning". This usage derives from
8694-400: The latter was converted into a new conference centre in 2000, which was used for internal events and also made available for external organisations to hire. The Ordnance Survey became an Executive Agency in 1990, making the organisation independent of ministerial control. In 1999 the agency was designated a trading fund , required to cover its costs by charging for its products and to remit
8820-414: The leisure market. In 1920 O. G. S. Crawford was appointed Archaeology Officer and played a prominent role in developing the use of aerial photography to deepen understanding of archaeology. In 1922, devolution in Northern Ireland led to the creation of the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland (OSNI) and the independence of the Irish Free State led to the creation of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland , so
8946-436: The length of Leicester Square it is Whicomb Street and finally Hedge Lane , which now starts at Panton Street rather than James Street. By the end of the 18th century, Horwood , on a large map of 1799, uses the same names but not Old Soho and Hedge Lane . This leaves just Wardour , Princes and Whitcomb streets. The houses have individual numbers by then, and are shown in detail on Horwood's map. The names are much
9072-465: The location of the original. By the mid-18th century, the aristocrats who had been living in Soho Square or Gerrard Street had moved away, as more fashionable areas such as Mayfair became available. The historian and topographer William Maitland wrote that the parish "so greatly abound with French that is an easy Matter for a Stranger to imagine himself in France." Soho's character stems partly from
9198-485: The meaning of the Chinese name ( 華 都 街) is likely "Chinese Metropolis Street" given the vicinity of Chinatown . 51°30′51″N 0°08′04″W / 51.51419°N 0.13456°W / 51.51419; -0.13456 Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster in the West End of London . Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in
9324-472: The mile) for Land Valuation and Inland Revenue purposes: the increased scale was to provide space for annotations. About a quarter of these 1:1250s were marked "Partially revised 1912/13". In areas where there were no further 1:2500s, these partially revised "fifty inch" sheets represent the last large-scale revision (larger than six-inch) of the County Series. The County Series mapping was superseded by
9450-415: The models had to remain motionless to avoid the censorship laws then in place. The theatre claimed that, aside from a compulsory closure between 4 and 16 September 1939, it was the only theatre in London which did not close during the Second World War; this led it to use the slogan "We never closed". Several prominent comedians including Harry Secombe , Jimmy Edwards and Tony Hancock began their careers at
9576-400: The modern road almost exactly, including bends at Brewer Street and Old Compton Street . The road is also a major thoroughfare on Faithorne and Newcourt 's map surveyed between 1643 and 1647. Although they do not give it a name, it is shown to have about 24 houses, and additionally a large "Gaming House" roughly on the present-day northwest corner of Leicester Square . The map also shows
9702-486: The next 20 years, about a third of England and Wales was mapped at the same scale (see Principal Triangulation of Great Britain ) under the direction of William Mudge , as other military matters took precedence. It took until 1823 to re-establish the relationship with the French survey made by Roy in 1787. By 1810, one-inch-to-the-mile maps of most of the south of England were completed, but they were withdrawn from sale between 1811 and 1816 because of security fears. By 1840,
9828-750: The north of England to a scale of 1:2,500. In 1855, the Board of Ordnance was abolished and the Ordnance Survey was placed under the War Office together with the Topographical Survey and the Depot of Military Knowledge. Eventually in 1870 it was transferred to the Office of Works . The primary triangulation of the United Kingdom of Roy, Mudge and Yolland was completed by 1841, but was greatly improved by Alexander Ross Clarke who completed
9954-518: The numbering of premises was rationalised around 1896. In the late 19th century, Wardour Street was known for (sometimes slightly shoddy) furniture stores, antique shops, and dealers in artists' supplies. A complicated succession of members of the Wright family were in business in a variety of art and furniture-related fields between 1827 and 1919 at numbers 22 (the first and last), and also 23, 26, 134 and 144, with at least two businesses run by cousins in
10080-559: The once great number of antique shops in the area. The Paris-born luthier Georges Chanot III had a shop and violin-making business at no. 157 for many years. During this period, it became a centre of the British film industry , with the big production and distribution companies having their headquarters in the street. By the end of the century most of the big film companies had moved elsewhere, leaving some smaller independent production houses and post-production companies still based in
10206-456: The one-inch survey had covered all of Wales and all but the six northernmost counties of England. Surveying was hard work. For instance, Major Thomas Colby , the longest-serving Director General of the Ordnance Survey, walked 586 mi (943 km) in 22 days on a reconnaissance in 1819. In 1824, Colby and most of his staff moved to Ireland to work on a six-inches-to-the-mile (1:10,560) valuation survey. The survey of Ireland, county by county,
10332-428: The organisation to move from a trading fund model to a government-owned limited company , with the move completed in April 2015. The organisation remains fully owned by the UK government and retains many of the features of a public organisation. In September 2015 the history of the Ordnance Survey was the subject of a BBC Four TV documentary entitled A Very British Map: The Ordnance Survey Story . On 10 June 2019
10458-535: The original Ordnance Survey pulled its coverage back to Great Britain. In 1935, the Davidson Committee was established to review the Ordnance Survey's future. The new Director General, Major-General Malcolm MacLeod , started the retriangulation of Great Britain , an immense task involving the erection of concrete triangulation pillars ("trig points") on prominent hilltops as infallible positions for theodolites. Each measurement made by theodolite during
10584-431: The other by Eddie Manning, controlled drugs and prostitution in Soho. Both were eventually arrested and imprisoned; Manning died midway through a three-year sentence in 1933. Following World War II, gangs set up rings of prostitutes in the area, concentrated around Brewer Street and Rupert Street. Photographers also visited Soho in the hope of being able to blackmail people caught in the act of visiting prostitutes. When
10710-417: The production of six-inch maps of Ireland was complete. This had led to a demand for similar treatment in England, and work was proceeding on extending the six-inch map to northern England, but only a three-inch scale for most of Scotland. When Colby retired, he recommended William Yolland as his successor, but he was considered too young and the less experienced Lewis Alexander Hall was appointed. After
10836-433: The remainder was sold between 1590 and 1623. A small 2-acre (0.81 ha) section of land remained, until sold by Charles II in 1676. In the 1660s, ownership of Soho Fields passed to Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans , who leased 19 out of the 22 acres (89,000 m ) of land to Joseph Girle. He was granted permission to develop property and quickly passed the lease and development to bricklayer Richard Frith. Much of
10962-415: The remaining upper-class families to leave the area. Numerous hospitals were built to cope with the health problem; six were constructed between 1851 and 1874. Businesses catering to household essentials were established at the same time. The restaurant trade in Soho improved dramatically in the early 20th century. The construction of new theatres along Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road improved
11088-409: The reputation of the area, and a meal for theatre-goers became common. Public houses in Soho increased in popularity during the 1930s and were frequented by struggling authors, poets and artists. Since the decline of the sex industry in Soho in the 1980s, the area has returned to being more residential. The Soho Housing Association was established in 1976 to provide reasonable rented accommodation. By
11214-410: The rest of Europe in preparation for its invasion . Until 1969, the Ordnance Survey largely remained at its Southampton city centre HQ and at temporary buildings in the suburb of Maybush nearby, when a new purpose-built headquarters was opened in Maybush adjacent to the wartime temporary buildings there. Some of the remaining buildings of the original Southampton city-centre site are now used as part of
11340-498: The retriangulation was repeated no fewer than 32 times. The Davidson Committee's final report set the Ordnance Survey on course for the 20th century. The metric national grid reference system was launched and a 1:25000-scale series of maps was introduced. The one-inch maps continued to be produced until the 1970s, when they were superseded by the 1:50000-scale series – as proposed by William Roy more than two centuries earlier. The Ordnance Survey had outgrown its site in
11466-417: The same on Greenwood 's map of 1827, although the area at the southern end had been redeveloped. The road now ends at Pall Mall East, and the boundary between Wardour and Princes streets may have moved north a little. By 1846, Cruchley 's new plan of London shows change at the southern end. Wardour , Princes and Whitcomb streets stay the same; however, Whitcomb Street loses a few hundred yards at
11592-497: The series The Comic Strip Presents on Channel 4 . The Gargoyle's success and Bohemian clientele led to other restaurants being founded around Soho, including the Eiffel Tower and Bellotti's. During the 1970s the building at 69 Dean Street housed another nightspot in its cellars, initially known as Billy's, and run by Soho's only Jamaican club owner, Vince Howard. The Blitz Kids , a group of London clubgoers who spearheaded
11718-400: The sex industry in the area and improve it with a comprehensive redevelopment plan. This led to a series of corruption trials in 1975, following which several senior police officers were imprisoned. This caused a small recession in Soho which depressed property values at the time Paul Raymond had started buying freeholds there. By the 1980s, purges of the police force along with pressure from
11844-521: The six-inch standard was adopted in Great Britain for the un-surveyed northern counties and the 1:1056 scale also began to be adopted for urban surveys. Between 1842 and 1895, some 400 towns were mapped at 1:500 (126 inches), 1:528 (120 inches, "10 foot scale") or 1:1056 (60 inches), with the remaining towns mapped at 1:2500 (~25 inches). In 1855, the Treasury authorised funding for 1:2500 for rural areas and 1:500 for urban areas. The 1:500 scale
11970-612: The south, Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, and Charing Cross Road to the east. Apart from Oxford Street, all of these roads are 19th-century metropolitan improvements. The area to the west is known as Mayfair , to the north Fitzrovia , to the east St Giles and Covent Garden , and to the south St James's . Soho is part of the West End electoral ward which elects three councillors to Westminster City Council . The nearest London Underground stations are Oxford Circus , Piccadilly Circus , Tottenham Court Road , Leicester Square and Covent Garden . During
12096-407: The southern end, and from James Street to Pall Mall is now Dorset Place . In Victorian times, Princes Street is still shown on the 1871 Ordnance Survey map. Stanford 's Map of Central London 1897, at 6 inches (15 cm) to a mile (1:10560), has just two names, Wardour Street from Oxford Street to Coventry Street, and Whitcomb Street south from there. It has remained like this since, though
12222-522: The staging points of the Dean Street shuffle, with occasional forays into other joints such as The Gargoyle or the Mandrake ;... The Groucho or Blacks". Christopher Howse notes of the coterie of bohemian heavy drinkers that "There was no worry about pensions in Soho. People didn't live that long." The Gargoyle Club opened at 69 Dean Street in 1925. It was founded by the socialite
12348-477: The standard issue, were contoured . The de-classified sheets have now been deposited in some of the Copyright Libraries, helping to complete the map-picture of pre-Second World War Britain. From 1824, the OS began a 6-inch (1:10,560) survey of Ireland for taxation purposes but found this to be inadequate for urban areas and adopted the five-foot scale (1:1056) for Irish cities and towns. From 1840,
12474-515: The street. Led Zeppelin 's first rehearsal in 1968 was in a basement studio on Gerrard Street. The Soho area has been at the heart of London's sex industry for more than 200 years; between 1778 and 1801, 21 Soho Square was location of the White House, a brothel described by the magistrate Henry Mayhew as "a notorious place of ill-fame". Shortly before World War I, two rival gangs, one led by Chan Nan (also called " Brilliant Chang ") and
12600-524: The survey are to endeavour to obtain the correct orthography of the names of places by diligently consulting the best authorities within their reach. The name of each place is to be inserted as it is commonly spelt, in the first column of the name book and the various modes of spelling it used in books, writings &c. are to be inserted in the second column, with the authority placed in the third column opposite to each. Whilst these procedures generally produced excellent results, mistakes were made: for instance,
12726-423: The theatre (but not the property itself) were bought by Raymond's business associate Gérard Simi in 1996. The theatre suffered financial difficulties owing to increasing rent, leading to its closure in 2004. It became a gay bar and cabaret venue called Too2Much; in 2005, Elton John staged a joint bachelor party there with his longtime partner David Furnish in anticipation of their civil partnership . The venue
12852-422: The two scales was completed by the 1890s, with a second edition completed in the 1890s and 1900s. From 1907 till the early 1940s, a third edition (or "second revision") was begun but never completed: only areas with significant changes on the ground were revised, many two or three times. Meanwhile, publication of the one-inch to the mile series for Great Britain was completed in 1891. From the late 19th century to
12978-638: The workforce in Soho worked in the creative industries. Many small and easily affordable restaurants and cafes were established in Soho during the 19th century, particularly as a result of Greek and Italian immigration. The restaurants were not looked upon favourably at first, but their reputation changed at the start of the 20th century. In 1924, a guide reported "of late years, the inexpensive restaurants of Soho have enjoyed an extraordinary vogue." Arthur Ransome 's Bohemia in London (1907) mentions Old and New Soho, including details about Soho coffee-houses including The Moorish Café and The Algerian. Kettner's
13104-514: The year, particularly on the Chinese New Year . In March 2022, Cadbury opened a temporary vegan chocolate shop at 15 Bateman Street. Soho Radio is an internet radio station on Great Windmill Street, next to the Windmill Theatre . Since May 2014 it has been streaming live and pre-recorded programming from its premises, which also function as a retail space and coffee shop. The station states on its website that it aims "to reflect
13230-502: Was a Sunday afternoon club organised by the beat poet Pete Brown , active in the mid-1960s. For the rest of the week, it operated as an illegal gambling den . Pink Floyd played at the club at the beginning of their career. The 2i's Coffee Bar was one of the first rock clubs in Europe. It initially opened on No. 44 Gerard Street in 1956, but soon moved to its more famous venue of No. 59 Old Compton Street. Soho quickly became
13356-672: Was a restaurant on Romilly Street, established in 1867 by Napoleon III 's chef Auguste Kettner. It was frequently visited by Albert, Prince of Wales (where he is alleged to have dined with his mistress, Lillie Langtry ) and Oscar Wilde . The restaurant survived both World Wars without incident, and was regularly visited by Agatha Christie and Bing Crosby . In the 20th century, several Soho pubs and private members clubs gained notoriety for both their proprietors and clientele. Clive Jennings says of regular clientele such as Jeffrey Barnard and Francis Bacon that "the lethal triangle of The French , The Coach & Horses and The Colony were
13482-592: Was also a member of the Public Data Group . Paper maps represent only 5% of the company's annual revenue. It produces digital map data, online route planning and sharing services and mobile apps, plus many other location-based products for business, government and consumers. Ordnance Survey mapping is usually classified as either " large-scale " (in other words, more detailed) or "small-scale". The Survey's large-scale mapping comprises 1:2,500 maps for urban areas and 1:10,000 more generally. (The latter superseded
13608-490: Was attempting to stir up ethnic and homophobic tensions by carrying out a series of bombings. In early February 2020, parts of an unexploded Second World War bomb was discovered by construction workers developing a new mixed residential building in Richmond Mews, near Dean Street . Residents, employees, and pedestrians on Richmond Mews, Dean Street , Meard Street and St Anne's Court were evacuated on both
13734-423: Was based at 17 St Anne's Court , Soho and was a major London recording studio. It was established by Norman and Barry Sheffield in 1968, who wanted to expand from the small studio they had above their music shop. It became immediately successful after The Beatles decided to record several tracks on The White Album there, as the facilities were better than Abbey Road studios . Queen were originally managed by
13860-461: Was built between 1687 and 1703, and is probably named after James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick , the illegitimate son of James II of England . It has held a street market since the early 18th century, which has been formally organised since 1892. Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey ( OS ) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying ), which
13986-464: Was built in 1717 by Talman and reconstructed in 1803. The church was damaged by a V1 flying bomb during World War II in 1940, but the tower survived. In 1976, John Betjeman campaigned to save the building. The church was fully restored in the late 1980s and formally re-opened by the Princess Royal on 12 March 1990. The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory on Warwick Street
14112-656: Was built in 1788 and is the only remaining 18th-century Roman Catholic embassy chapel in London and principal church of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham . St Patrick's Church in Soho Square was built in 1792 to accommodate Irish immigrants who had moved to the area. Other religious buildings in Soho include the Hare Krishna Temple off Soho Square, which was part-funded by George Harrison and opened in 1979. There exists
14238-527: Was by then Director General, and he saw how photography could be used to make maps of various scales cheaply and easily. He developed and exploited photozincography , not only to reduce the costs of map production but also to publish facsimiles of nationally important manuscripts. Between 1861 and 1864, a facsimile of the Domesday Book was issued, county by county; and a facsimile of the Gough Map
14364-543: Was completed in 1846. The suspicions and tensions it caused in rural Ireland are the subject of Brian Friel 's play Translations . Colby was not only involved in the design of specialist measuring equipment. He also established a systematic collection of place names, and reorganised the map-making process to produce clear, accurate plans. Place names were recorded in "Name Books", a system first used in Ireland. The instructions for their use were: The persons employed on
14490-457: Was considered more 'rational' than 1:528 and became known as the "sanitary scale" since its primary purpose was to support establishment of mains sewerage and water supply. However, a review of the Ordnance Survey in 1892 found that sales of the 1:500 series maps were very poor and the Treasury declined to fund their continuing maintenance, declaring that any revision or new mapping at this scale must be self-financing. Very few towns and cities saw
14616-660: Was established at No. 32 Soho Square in 1874. The property had previously been owned by the naturalist and botanist Sir Joseph Banks . It moved to Westmoreland Street in 1914, and then to Fulham Road in 1991. In July 2019, Soho was reported to be the unhealthiest place to live in Britain. Researchers from the University of Liverpool found that the area had the greatest access to takeaways, pubs and off-licences and these were combined with high levels of air pollution and low levels of parks and green spaces. Berwick Street
14742-449: Was issued in 1870. From the 1840s, the Ordnance Survey concentrated on the Great Britain " County Series ", modelled on the earlier Ireland survey. A start was made on mapping the whole country, county by county, at six inches to the mile (1:10,560). In 1854, "twenty-five inch" maps were introduced with a scale of 1:2500 (25.344 inches to the mile) and the six inch maps were then based on these twenty-five inch maps. The first edition of
14868-431: Was originally called King Square in honour of Charles II, and a statue of him was based in the centre. Several upper-class families moved into the area, including those of Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston , and Edward Howard, 2nd Earl of Carlisle . The square had become known as Soho Square by 1720, at which point it had fashionable houses on all sides. Only No 10 and No 15 from this period have survived into
14994-553: Was partly caused by corruption in the Metropolitan Police . The vice squad at the time suffered from police officers enforcing against organised crime in the area, while simultaneously accepting bribes. This changed following the appointment of Robert Mark as chief constable, who began to crack down on corruption. In 1972 local residents started the Soho Society in order to control the increasing expansion of
15120-676: Was renamed the London Blues and Barrelhouse Club in the late 1950s, and closed in 1964. In the early 1950s, Soho became the centre of the beatnik culture in London. The first coffee bar to open was Moka at No. 29 Frith Street. It was formally opened in 1953 by the film star Gina Lollobrigida , and the frothed coffee produced from stainless steel machines was pioneering in British culture. Le Macabre on Wardour Street, had coffin-shaped tables, fostered beat poetry, jive dance and political debate. The Goings On, in Archer Street,
15246-423: Was split off from St Martin in 1686. Building progressed rapidly in the late 17th century, with large properties such as Monmouth House (built for James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's eldest illegitimate son), Leicester House , Fauconberg House, Carlisle House and Newport House. Soho Square was first laid out in the 1680s on the former Soho Fields; by 1691, 41 houses had been completed there. It
15372-512: Was subsequently renamed to the Soho Revue Bar, but closed in 2009. Soho is a centre of the independent film and video industry as well as the television and film post-production industry. Audio post duo White Lightning (Robbie Weston and Rick Dzendzera) opened two audio post-production facilities in different parts of Soho in 1986: Silk Sound at 13 Berwick Street , and The Bridge Facilities at 55-57 Great Marlborough Street . Silk Sound
15498-577: Was the home of the Marquee Club , which opened in 1958. In the 1960s, numerous major rock bands played at the venue, including early performances from the Rolling Stones in July 1962 and The Who in late 1964, Jimi Hendrix , David Bowie , Led Zeppelin , Pink Floyd , Jethro Tull , AC/DC and Iron Maiden . Eric Clapton and Brian Jones both lived for a time in Soho, sharing a flat with future rock publicist, Tony Brainsby . Trident Studios
15624-560: Was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745 . There was also a more general and nationwide need in light of the potential threat of invasion during the Napoleonic Wars . Since 1 April 2015, the Ordnance Survey has operated as Ordnance Survey Ltd, a government-owned company , 100% in public ownership. The Ordnance Survey Board remains accountable to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology . It
15750-670: Was unusual in that land registration on transfer of title was made compulsory there in 1900. The 1:1056 sheets were partially revised to provide a basis for HM Land Registry index maps and the OS mapped the whole London County Council area (at 1:1056) at national expense. Placenames from the second edition were used in 2016 by the GB1900 project to crowd-source an open-licensed gazetteer of Great Britain. From 1911 onwards – and mainly between 1911 and 1913 – the Ordnance Survey photo-enlarged many 1:2500 sheets covering built-up areas to 1:1250 (50.688 inches to
15876-412: Was what is now the stretch of Broadwick Street between Wardour Street and Berwick Street , as shown by Roque. Neither side of the street was fully built up by 1720. John Rocque shows both roads very clearly on his large-scale map of 1746 . From Oxford Street south to Meard Street is now Wardour Street ; then south to Compton Street is Old Soho ; then down to Coventry Street is Princes Street . For
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