Page 114 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - London
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112 L ONDON AREA B Y AREA
9 Chinatown w Soho Square
Streets around Gerrard St W1. Map 13 W1. Map 13 A1. 1 Tottenham
A2. 1 Leicester Sq, Piccadilly Circus. Court Rd.
∑ chinatownlondon.org
Soon after it was laid out in 1681
There has been a Chinese this square enjoyed a brief reign
community in London since the as the most fashionable address
19th century. Originally it was in London. Originally it was called
concentrated around the East King Square, after Charles II,
End docks at Limehouse, where whose statue was erected in
the opium dens of Victorian the middle. The square had
melodrama were sited. As the gone out of fashion by the late
number of immigrants increased 18th century. Now surrounded
in the 1950s, many moved into by bland office buildings, the
Soho, where they created an patches of green attract scores
everexpanding Chinatown. It of picnicking Soho office
contains scores of restaurants workers at lunchtimes.
and aromafilled shops selling
oriental produce. Three Chinese e Berwick
arches straddle Gerrard Street,
where a vibrant, colourful street Street Market
festival, held in late January or W1. Map 13 A1. 1 Piccadilly Circus.
early February, celebrates Poster for the Palace Theatre, 1898 Open 8am–6pm Mon–Sat. See
Chinese New Year (see p63). Shops and Markets p335.
q Palace Theatre ∑ berwickstreetlondon.
Shaftesbury Ave W1. Map 13 B2. co.uk/the-market/
Tel Box office 0330 333 4813.
1 Leicester Sq. Open for perform There has been a market here
ances only. See Entertainment since the late 18th century.
pp340–41. ∑ nimaxtheatres.com/ It was a Berwick Street trader,
palace-theatre Jack Smith, who introduced
grape fruit to London in 1890.
Most West End theatres are Today this is the West End’s best
disappointingly unassuming. street market (although the
Rows of jars containing Chinese sweets This one, which dominates the traditional traders could be under
in Chinatown west side of Cambridge Circus, threat with development taking
is a splendid exception, with its place on the west side of Berwick
0 Charing terracotta exterior and opulent Street). There are also some
interesting shops and a growing
furnishings. Completed as an
Cross Road opera house in 1891, it became number of cafés and restaurants.
a music hall the following year. At its southern end the street
WC2. Map 13 B2. 1 Leicester Sq.
See Shops and Markets pp316–17. Now the theatre stages hit narrows into an alley on which
shows such as Spamalot and the famous strip club Raymond
Once London’s favourite street The Commitments; in 2016 it Revuebar (the com paratively
for book lovers, with a clutch premiered the eagerly awaited respectable face of Soho sleaze)
of shops that were able to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, presented its “festival of erotica”
supply just about any recent based on a new J K Rowling story. from 1958 to 2004.
volume, many of Charing Cross
Road’s independent bookshops
have been forced to shut due
to rising rents. Several smaller,
secondhand bookshops
remain, however, including
Quinto & Francis Edwards
(see p326), which specializes
in antiquarian books, and a
good handful in nearby Cecil
Court. At the junction with
New Oxford Street rises the
1960s Centre point tower.
This junction is one of the key
sites for the huge Crossrail
underground rail project, so
expect traffic disruption. Quinto & Francis Edwards on Charing Cross Road
112-113_EW_London.indd 112 21/03/17 2:25 pm
