Judith Summers
Casanova in Soho
The Venetian adventurer’s 1763 arrival in London, Teresa Cornelys and Carlisle House.
Read the story →From the archive
Soho Stories
From the Museum of Soho archive
Digital archive
Stories recovered from our earlier website
These articles and projects formed part of the Museum’s original online archive. We are bringing them back into the new digital Museum of Soho while preserving authorship, acknowledgements and provenance.
Prof. Joan Navarre
A Welsh Dairy in Soho
The Pugh family and Oxford Express Dairies at 26 Frith Street.
Read the story →Prof. Joan Navarre
157 Wardour Street: Then & Now
Georges Chanot III and Soho’s remarkable violin-making history.
Read the story →Prof. Joan Navarre
The Pierpoint Monument
The lost St Anne’s monument of Lady Grace Pierpoint and its reappearance at auction.
Read the story →Museum archive
The St Anne’s Clock
The parish clock, bell and surviving tower of St Anne’s.
Read the story →FrenchMottershead
OVER THE THRESHOLD
The 2011 FrenchMottershead photographic project made with residents of Soho and presented by The Photographers’ Gallery.
Read the story →The WWI Memorial Plaque at Novello House
Soho remembrance · 2015
Novello House — WWI Memorial Plaque
During the Great War of 1914–1918, many of Novello’s staff went into service; many never returned. Novello & Co commissioned a dedication plaque in their memory. The plaque remained on display at Novello House until the mid-1970s (Novello & Co having vacated the premises in 1965).
Museum of Soho volunteer Mark Brisenden led a campaign and research effort to restore the plaque to its original location within Novello House, now the home of Yamaha Music London.
Museum of Soho × Proboscis / Bookleteer
Soho Memoirs
In 2014 the Museum of Soho collaborated with Proboscis to publish three memoirs by Soho residents from the Museum’s archive. The publications were distributed through Bookleteer’s The Periodical and at a special Museum of Soho event at the House of St Barnabas. Proboscis later issued a limited Soho Memoirs set in 2015.
Harold Lun
Recollections
A Museum archive memoir preserving Harold Lun’s recollections of Soho, published through the Museum’s collaboration with Proboscis and Bookleteer.
Read the original Bookleteer edition →Alf & Nance Wood
Recollections of Geo. Benford & O’Shea
Memories of Soho working life from Alf and Nance Wood, preserved in the Museum archive and published as part of the Soho Memoirs collaboration.
Read the original Bookleteer edition →Henry Long
A London Childhood 1926–1939
Henry Long’s account of a London childhood between the wars, published as the third Museum of Soho collaboration in the Soho Memoirs series.
Read the original Bookleteer edition →Publication collaboration: The Museum of Soho and Proboscis / Bookleteer. The memoirs originate in the Museum of Soho archive.
The Museum of Soho blog · 2012–2025
From the Museum Blog
Our original blog preserves research, recollections, interviews and exhibition stories from the Museum of Soho. This index brings those subjects into the digital Museum while keeping the original articles in their original context.
Collection
Bellarmine Jars
The Museum’s c.1680 Bellarmine jar, discovered beneath The Ship in Wardour Street, and the history of so-called witch bottles.
Read the original blog article →Community
Is Soho Losing Its Character?
Reflections on Soho’s community, behaviour, local identity and the pressures of change.
Read the original blog article →George Skeggs · Part 1
Fond Memories of Soho, 1957–2012
George Skeggs remembers arriving in Soho in the 1950s: coffee bars, Teddy Boys, rock ’n’ roll and the streets around Old Compton Street.
Read Part 1 →George Skeggs · Part 2
Fond Memories of Soho, 1957–2012
Mods, beatniks, the French House, Colony Room, Pugh’s Dairy, Bar Italia, Maison Bertaux and Soho’s changing street life.
Read Part 2 →Music
Record Store Day 2013
Berwick Street, independent record shops and the Museum’s work celebrating Soho’s musical heritage.
Read the original blog entry →Film & Soho
The Look of Love
The Soho-set Paul Raymond biopic and the Museum’s 2013 special-screening competition.
Read the original blog entry →Museum event
Museums at Night 2014
The Bellarmine Jar, A Pot to Wishin’ and the Museum’s Grayson Perry / Museums at Night campaign.
Read the original blog entry →Robert Rubbish & Will Burns
Soho, Memory and Place
Will Burns in conversation with artist Robert Rubbish about Soho, its characters and its surviving institutions.
Read the original blog article →Migration & craft
The Huguenots
An edited extract on Huguenot migration and its influence, with thanks to Dan Cruickshank and the Huguenots of Spitalfields.
Read the original blog article →Cinema
Soho’s Silent Cinemas
Dr Chris O’Rourke on cinema and the West End, 1906–1930, from early picture houses to repertory film culture.
Read the original blog article →LGBT+ history
Remembering the First Gay Pride
An extract from Alan Wakeman’s memoir recalling Gay Liberation Front activism and an early Pride march.
Read the original blog entry →Public health
Soho and the Cholera Outbreak of 1854
A critical look at the modern telling of Dr John Snow, the Broadwick Street pump and the history of cholera.
Read the original blog entry →Food & memory
Ghosts of Soho Restaurants
Roger Clarke remembers vanished restaurants and Soho’s continually changing food culture.
Read the original blog article →Music
Not Fade Away — The Rolling Stones in Soho
The Bricklayers Arms, Brian Jones’s auditions, the Marquee and the Rolling Stones’ early Soho story.
Read the original blog article →Buildings
In the Shadow of the Prince Edward Theatre
The earlier buildings, businesses and residents at the Greek Street and Old Compton Street site.
Read the original blog article →Clayton Littlewood
Piccadilly. My Stop.
A personal walk through Soho’s streets, venues, characters, memories and ghosts.
Read the original blog article →Robert Rubbish & Cathi Unsworth
Spiritus Soho
A drift through Soho’s music, clubs, people and places, from the Flamingo to Meard Street and Dean Street.
Read the original blog article →Nightlife
Murray’s Cabaret Club
The club, its showgirls, personalities and rediscovered costume designs, connected to the Museum’s Murray’s exhibition.
Read the original blog article →Social history
Charles Booth’s Poverty Map
Sarah Wise on what Booth’s survey and the 1888 Soho micro-survey reveal about late nineteenth-century Soho.
Read the original blog article →Hidden economies
Under the Counter: The Rise and Fall of Soho’s Adult Shops
Prof. Oliver Carter on Soho’s illicit pornography trade, sex-shop economy, regulation and changing streetscape.
Read the original blog article →This is the first recovered subject index. The original blog contains 32 posts from 2012–2025; we will add the remaining early posts as their titles and links are verified.