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A timely reminder of Soho and Fitzrovia’s
rich history
ED Glinert’s West End Chronicles is a heady mix of stories about Soho and Fitzrovia and of the characters who lived or worked there. I certainly recognise my Fitzrovia.
I came to live here in 1964 having married the man London socialite Henrietta Moraes had been engaged to, and many of the faces in this book were guests at our house. Colin MacInnes’s book Absolute Beginners was completed in the “Little Dorrit Room” as he affectionately called the attic room he lived in when in town.
A distant ancestor, the poet Edward Fitzgerald of the Omar Khayyam, also lived a dandy walk away in Charlotte Street at the time of Beau Brummel.
The West End is at the heart of London, yet few books have been written about this gem in the Capital’s crown which stretches from Soho in the south, to Regent’s Park in the north. This book is timely, as we witness so many buildings being torn down by voracious developers.
Those that once housed nurses are gone to become luxury flats: the most expensive area on the Monopoly board.
The West End is best-known for entertainment with its clubs, restaurants, theatres, brothels and drinking dens frequented over the centuries by writers like Casanova, who lived in Soho Square, or Dylan Thomas in Charlotte Street.
Ed’s book covers the making of the West End from green fields through to its place in history as a gorgeous bohemian attraction, pulling in refugees from every country in the world, enriching the dishes of each new restaurant.
Some of the unique characters are, sadly, no longer alive, but their memory lives on in spirit in the Free French Pub in Soho.
Fitzrovia is also known for its famous political past: Karl Marx drank there; Lenin went to the communist club in Charlotte Street in the early 1900s and, decades later, the African National Congress had its HQ in Rathbone Place.
The book ends on a cry “that the battle for the West End’s soul is raging”, with the fear that the soulless coffee bar is threatening to take over its unique identity.
We’re at the mercy of the corporate empire builders; but Ed also celebrates the coming of Chinatown to the area from Limehouse, and the gay makeover of Soho.
This glittering array of delights we must preserve.FIONA GREEN
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