Soho Square Park

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Posted 2014-03-27 by Mike Whyte ⇒ follow

When you're on the busiest street in London - Oxford Street - and you want to get away from the hustle and bustle, where can you go? You could go to one of the many chain coffee shops dotted around the area, pop in to a local fast food establishment, or best of all - especially if it's a nice day - head along to Soho Square , a patch of green in an area of road and brick.

A bit of history; Soho Square has been part of the Central London area for a long, long time. In fact, back in the 1670's, it was originally called King Square, after King Charles II (who you can see in the statue above).

Fast forward to the present day, and Soho Square is home to many important media establishments. 20th Century Fox are here, as is the British Board of Film Classification, and for football fans you'll also find the home of the FA.

The area, being a media hub, also attracts many actors and musicians to the area. Part of The League of Gentlemen - Apocalypse was supposedly filmed in the hut that stands in the middle of the square (though actually only the exterior was used, the interior being filmed elsewhere). There are also references to the square in A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and there is a bench dedicated to the singer Kirsty MacColl (most famous for her duet with the Pogues on A Fairytale of New York, the Christmas classic), who wrote a song involving the square before she died in 2000.

All of this may or may not matter to you if you're just looking for a place to park up, kick back and relax, so if I put it in simple terms...there is nowhere better on a hot summer day than heading to this patch of grass for a bit of people watching, a game of ping pong (there are tables planted around the square), a look at the sculptures (as King Charles is not the only one here), and generally resting your weary shopping ailments before making the final push home (or further into the bright Soho lights).

Now, that's better...