Soho Square
in London, United KingdomCategory: Attraction
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13456 Soho Square, Soho, London W1D, UK Print route »
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Soho Square is a garden square in Soho, London which has been de facto since 1954 a public park leased to the council at its centre. It was originally called King Square after Charles II. Its statue of Charles II has stood since the square's 1681 founding (one year after the restoration of the monarchy) except between 1875 and 1938; it is today well-weathered. By the time of the drawing of a keynote map of London in 1746 the newer name for the square had gained sway. During the summer, Soho Square hosts open-air free concerts.At its centre is a listed mock "market cross" building completed in 1926 to hide the above-ground features of a contemporary electricity substation; small, octagonal, with Tudorbethan timber framing. During the statue's absence arranged by resident business Crosse & Blackwell it was privately displayed at Grim's Dyke, a country house where it was kept by painter Frederick Goodall then dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator W. S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame.
Initial residents were relatively significant landowners and merchants. Some of the use remains residential. From the 1820s to 1860s at least eleven artists who qualified for major exhibitions are recorded as resident aside from permanent residents, some of whom were more accomplished artists, who paid the rates; by the end of that century charities, music, art and other creative design businesses had taken several premises along the square. A legacy of creative design and philanthropic occupants lingers including the British Board of Film Classification, 20th Century Fox, Dolby Europe Ltd, Tiger Aspect Productions, the French Protestant Church of London and the House of St Barnabas a members' club since 2013 which fundraises and hosts events and exhibitions for homeless-linked good causes.
