Step south of Oxford Street to explore the independent boutiques and cafés of London’s original creative hub, still home to many media companies. Soho has a strong sense of community and many traders here are long-established. But it is constantly evolving, with new shops and restaurants opening frequently, making it a lively and dynamic neighbourhood.
The garden at the heart of Soho Square provides one of the area’s few green spaces, meaning it can get pretty busy on a sunny day as lots of people try to grab a spot to eat lunch on the grass (just try to avoid the pigeons!). The park has a few interesting features such as the statue of King Charles II by the Danish sculptor Caius Gabriel Cibber, and the quirky timber hut in the middle which makes a great rendezvous point. As with Golden Square, there are ping-pong tables for public use. The buildings surrounding the park were apparently very fashionable places to live when the square was built in the 1670s but they now house mainly media organisations including the British Board of Film Classification and Twentieth Century Fox.
