Simon Fanshawe: Soho

Critic's Choice: London's Most Important Building

26 March 2012

At the Geological Society, Piccadilly

Simon Fanshawe Photo © Steve Bootle
Soho Photo © Royal Academy of Arts

Writer and broadcaster Simon Fanshawe focuses on Soho. “Rescued from dullness by the disregard of the rich, Soho became the home of the homos, the hobos, the foreigners, the frisky, the migrants and the merchants of desire. What went on in Soho behind closed doors was an open secret”. Fanshawe explores the churches, theatres, sex shops, brothels, restaurants and pubs of Soho to understand the way that pleasure and its counterpart, guilt, shaped the architecture of the district.

Respondents include Robert Ayton, Head of Design and Conservation (Central Team), Westminster City Council, Stuart Baker of Broadwick Street's Soul Jazz Records, and the writer, Jenny Uglow.

Online booking for this event is now closed. Tickets will be available on the door from 6pm.

6.30–8pm, followed by a drinks reception.
£15 / £7 reductions (students, jobseekers and people with disabilities)

Read more about other events in the Critic's Choice series

• Royal Academy of Arts