Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club started in Gerrard street in the basement of No. 39
Samuel Johnson and Joshua Reynolds met at the Turk’s Head Tavern to found The Club dining club in 1764. The site is commemorated by a plaque at No. 9
London''s Chinatown
London’s Chinatown is a commercial area; very few people actually live there.
There are many illegal workers in London’s Chinatown earning less than minimum wage[citation needed]. Also, it is known that the Triads are operating there, highlighted by a shooting in broad daylight in June 2003 in the “brb bar” on Gerrard Street[1]. Naturally, these do not happen very often and Chinatown is a relatively safe area of London. There are City Guardians walking on the streets in Chinatown all the time.
Chinatown pagoda, London
There are nearly 60 Chinese restaurants in London’s Chinatown alone. London Chinatown has the collection of some of the best Chinese restaurants in town. One can easily find excellent Hong Kong style dim sum, authentic Peking roast duck as well as spicy Sichuan food. If you are on a budget, there are places you can get perhaps the best deal in town for an authentic Chinese lunch - one dish plus rice or noodles for around £5, and you get tea and a big bowl of authentic, home style Chinese soup (with bones and vegetables) for free.
The celebrations for the Chinese New Year, in February 2007
The first area in London known as Chinatown was located in the Limehouse area of London. At the start of the 20th century, the Chinese population of London was concentrated in that area, setting up businesses which catered to the Chinese sailors who frequented in Docklands. The area began to become known through exaggerated reports and tales of (legal) opium dens and slum housing, rather than the Chinese restaurants and supermarkets in the current Chinatown. However, much of the area was damaged by aerial bombing during the Blitz in the Second World War, although a number of elderly Chinese still choose to live in this area.
After the Second World War, however, the growing popularity of Chinese cuisine and an influx of immigrants from Hong Kong led to an increasing number of Chinese restaurants being opened elsewhere.
The present Chinatown, off Shaftesbury Avenue in London, did not start to be established until the 1970s. Up until then, it was a regular Soho area, run-down, with Gerrard Street the main thoroughfare. It was dominated by the Post Office, facing Macclesfield Street, and other major establishments were The Tailor & Cutter House, at 43/44, now a Chinese supermarket and restaurant, the Boulougne Restaurant, near the Wardour Street end, and by Peter Mario’s Restaurant at the other end. Other businesses included a master baker’s, the Sari Centre, Lesgrain French Coffee House, an Indian restaurant and lots of doorways offering French Lessons and such like. Probably the first Chinese restaurants opened in Lisle Street, parallel to Gerrard St, and then spread gradually. The Tailor & Cutter did not close down until around 1974.
In 2005, the property developer Rosewheel has proposed a plan to redevelop the eastern part of Chinatown. The plan is opposed by many of the existing retailers in Chinatown, on the basis that they believe that the redevelopment will drive out the traditional Chinese retail stores from the area and change the ethnic characteristic of Chinatown.
Chinatown is highly decorated for special occasions, here for Chinese New Year 2004
London’s Chinatown is in the Soho area of the City of Westminster, occupying the area in and around Gerrard Street. It contains a number of Chinese restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, souvenir shops, and other Chinese-run businesses.