{"id":1040306,"date":"2026-06-21T06:11:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T06:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1040306\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T06:11:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T06:11:24","slug":"everyone-wants-to-save-soho-but-no-one-can-agree-on-what-that-actually-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1040306\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyone wants to save Soho \u2013 but no one can agree on what that actually means"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sadiq Khan<\/a> has a message for anyone moaning about Soho<\/a>\u2019s nightlife<\/a>: perhaps they should have thought about that before moving to one of London<\/a>\u2019s most bustling areas. <\/p>\n

\u201cComplaining about nightlife<\/a> when you choose to live in Soho<\/a> is like living in South Kensington and complaining about the museums,\u201d the London<\/a> mayor wrote on X, after pledging to overrule residents<\/a>\u2019 groups that object to new bars, restaurants<\/a> and late licences in the capital\u2019s nightlife districts.<\/p>\n

Khan\u2019s intervention followed a decision by the Soho Society, one of the area\u2019s oldest residents<\/a>\u2019 groups, to oppose all new and renewed licences in what it says is an effort to protect a neighbourhood increasingly buckling under the weight of anti-social behaviour<\/a>, noise and overcrowding. <\/p>\n

It is an argument that has haunted Soho for decades. The area has spent decades being simultaneously celebrated and mourned: London\u2019s bohemian beating heart and a victim of its own success. A haven for artists, actors and outsiders, but a hotbed of crime<\/a>. Everyone wants to save Soho. The trouble is, nobody can quite agree on what that means.<\/p>\n

If anyone has earned the right to an opinion on Soho, it\u2019s Brian Clivaz of L\u2019Escargot, the historic French restaurant that first opened in 1896. After more than a decade at the helm of it and considerably longer watching Soho evolve, unlike some commentators, Clivaz has little interest in painting W1 as either paradise or dystopia.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are worried about the gentrification of Soho, and of course, nobody wants a homogenised Soho,\u201d he says. \u201cEverybody wants it to be eclectic and eccentric and individualistic.\u201d The trouble is, he says, that the neighbourhood is struggling under the pressure of its own popularity. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe, but there are something like 530 licensed premises in Soho, just in that small space between Carnaby Street and Tottenham Court Road, with a capacity of about 60,000 people or more,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd for the late licences, I think it\u2019s something like 150 premises, which are licensed after 1am, again with a capacity of about 20,000 people.\u201d He pauses. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pavements, he argues, have not kept pace. \u201cThey are quite small and haven\u2019t been maintained for years and years, and need upgrading,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople trying to walk down the street with a pram, or people in a wheelchair, or people with a mobility frame find it very difficult to get around because there are so many people crammed in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem only compounds after dark. \u201cPeople coming to restaurants<\/a> \u2026 don\u2019t necessarily want to try and battle their way through hundreds of people who have had far too much to drink on a Saturday night to try and get to dinner after the theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soho sits within Westminster<\/a>\u2019s designated West End Stress Area and is one of the busiest nightlife districts in the country. In April alone, there were 585 reports of pickpocketing, 359 of shoplifting and 206 of anti-social behaviour<\/a>, according to the Metropolitan Police. There were 193 sexual offences reported, and according to the City of Westminster<\/a>, over 65 per cent of all sexual offences in the borough occur in the West End and St James\u2019s wards (encompassing the neighbouring Piccadilly, Leicester Square, Covent Garden and the Strand). <\/p>\n

\"TheThe French restaurant has been around for 130 years \u2013 but so have Soho\u2019s scruffy pavements, its owner says (Getty)<\/p>\n

A record 17.6 million people visited the West End last year, generating over \u00a31bn in revenue. At the same time, the number of residents has dwindled to between 2,000 and 2,600 \u2013 30 per cent of which are in social housing and 250 are families living with children under 18.<\/p>\n

Max Venning, co-founder of cocktail bar Three Sheets, which opened in Soho after building a devoted following in Dalston, has little difficulty understanding why residents are frustrated. Spend enough time in Soho after midnight and the complaints begin to make themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of licensed venues in Soho that do cause trouble, and there is a lot of trouble in Soho,\u201d he says. \u201cPolice funding is down, so it\u2019s harder for them, and it is a complicated issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Complaining about nightlife when you choose to live in Soho is like living in South Kensington and complaining about the museums<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sadiq Khan on X<\/p>\n

But Venning argues that the Soho Society\u2019s blanket opposition risks preserving exactly the conditions residents say they dislike. His frustration is not with scrutiny, but with a licensing system that, in his view, treats every application as equally problematic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe licensing system in the UK is a bit backwards, and the objections system is very backwards, because it means if the Soho Society objects, then you need to go to a tribunal,\u201d he explains. \u201cThey object to every single licence application. If you say, \u2018We just want to change the internal layout of our venue,\u2019 they\u2019ll object to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t serve the residents of Soho either, because all they\u2019re doing is keeping everything exactly the same, and that\u2019s what they\u2019re not happy with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clivaz doesn\u2019t need statistics to know there is a problem or run-ins with the locals. He sees it first hand. \u201cAlmost every Saturday night, when we come in on a Sunday morning, we have to clean up buckets of sick from our doorstep. Or worse things, frankly,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s the reality of having too many people in a confined space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RestaurantRestaurant owner Nima Safaei has said that restrictions could lead to the end of Soho as we know it (Supplied)<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not arguing for fewer restaurants, nor that Soho should become quieter. Simply, \u201cthere has to be some sort of joined-up policy about licensing,\u201d he says. \u201cThe biggest estates \u2013 Shaftesbury, Soho Estate \u2013 along with the residents and the Soho Society, have to come together and agree on a framework for the future of Soho, so it doesn\u2019t just become a swamp of people frilling around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nima Safaei, who owns 40 Dean Street, 64 Old Compton Street and 27 Old Compton Street, knows the arguments well \u2013 unlike many involved in the debate, Safaei occupies both sides of the divide: he also lives in Soho. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think anyone living in an area like Soho has a right to voice their concerns,\u201d he says. \u201cBut, just as Sadiq Khan<\/a> said recently, if you move into an area known for late-night activities, it seems odd to be against it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRestricting nightlife in Soho is what could eventually mean the area we know and love could just cease to exist. I want to keep the magic of Soho alive for as long as possible \u2013 both as a local resident and a business owner.\u201d <\/p>\n

Like Clivaz, he sees compromise as both possible and necessary. Ultimately, he believes residents, businesses and policymakers first need to agree on what they are trying to protect. \u201cFor that to work, we need to both establish exactly what we define as \u2018preserving Soho\u2019s character\u2019. From there, we can work together to keep Soho alive and live in harmony with one another rather than against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe crowded nature of London\u2019s Soho district gives rise to crime and other issues (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

That sounds reasonable enough. The difficulty, of course, is deciding what that compromise looks like in practice. Should there be fewer licenses? Stricter conditions? Earlier closing times? More policing? Everyone agrees that Soho has a problem. The more difficult question is what, exactly, should be done about it. <\/p>\n

That confusion has certainly hampered Venning. Three Sheets can\u2019t get a full bar licence, so every table has to order food to have a drink. \u201cThat is damaging for business, but we\u2019d argue that a venue like ours is an improvement for Soho because we\u2019ve taken what was one of the roughest streets and turned it into a really nice area to spend time in.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the bar owner, one of Soho\u2019s biggest problems is that too many people are being funnelled onto the streets at exactly the same time. At present, Westminster\u2019s licensing policy generally favours closing times of around 11.30pm during the week and midnight at weekends, unless operators can justify later hours. That creates its own problems. <\/p>\n

\n

The very fabric of Soho was founded on being that raucous, late-night space where anything could happen. That\u2019s the magic of Soho and what makes it so different to anywhere else in the world, let alone London<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nima Safaei, Soho restaurateur<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat ends up happening is there are fewer places open late, and those venues tend to promote heavier drinking late at night,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat would be better is progressive licensing where some places close at 11pm, others at 1am and others at 2am. You\u2019d have a better flow of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea is a smart one, but hardly radical. Many major cities manage nighttime economies through a mix of venue types and staggered operating hours rather than uniform closing times. Whether Westminster or the Soho Society agrees is another matter.<\/p>\n

They \u201cfight everything to the hilt\u201d, Venning says, including his own application for 10 seats at the bar where people could have a drink without ordering food before 9pm. \u201cIt was a bit of a ridiculous tribunal, to be honest. They said, \u2018No, that\u2019s going to add more drinkers to the streets.\u2019 We were talking about 10 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question facing Soho is not whether it should have restaurants, bars, residents or nightlife. It has always had all four. The question is whether a neighbourhood built on coexistence can persuade its competing interests to sit around the same table long enough to agree on what comes next.<\/p>\n

The irony, Venning argues, is that Soho’s reputation remains one of its biggest draws. The problem is what happens once businesses arrive. \u201cOpening in Soho had been a dream of ours since before we opened the first bar in Dalston,\u201d he says. \u201cThen you get there and realise it creates conditions that make it really hard to operate in the hospitality industry, which is already incredibly challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an irony not lost on Safaei either. \u201cThe very fabric of Soho was founded on being that raucous, late-night space where anything could happen,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s the magic of Soho and what makes it so different to anywhere else in the world, let alone London.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan has a message for anyone moaning about Soho\u2019s nightlife: perhaps they should have thought about that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1040307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,35745,1700,393,4884,44888,4073,257,363,16,15],"class_list":["post-1040306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-christmas","tag-economy","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-horizontal","tag-illustration","tag-london","tag-retail","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116786619279367359","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1040307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}