Soho Square

About Soho Square

Square in Soho, London, England

Soho Square is a centuries-old small garden square in the heart of Soho, London, which since 1954 has served as a de facto public park let by the Soho Square Garden Committee to Westminster City Council. It was laid out in 1661, a year after the restoration of the monarchy, as King Square after Charles II, and a much-weathered statue of the king has stood in the square since that year, with a long interruption from 1875 to 1938 when it was a garden ornament at the country house of the painter Frederick Goodall and then of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan. By the time of the keynote map of London of 1746 the newer name Soho had taken hold; its first residents were substantial landowners and merchants, and part of the square remains residential. At the centre of the garden stands a small listed octagonal building in the form of a mock market cross with Tudorbethan timber framing, completed in 1926 to hide the above-ground features of an electricity substation and now one of Soho's best-known emblems. Of the square's thirty buildings, sixteen are listed, including St Patrick's Catholic Church and the French Protestant Church, as well as the offices of music and film companies. During the summer the square hosts free open-air concerts. Wikivoyage describes it as a centuries-old small park that becomes packed on warm sunny days, a much-loved green pause between Oxford Street, the restaurants of Soho and the theatres of the West End.

Where:

London, United Kingdom