#London #04

Mike Newton #LONDON

#4

Copyright 2014 by the author (Mike Newton) who retains the sole copyright for the contributions to this book. http://blackdog.shutterchance.com/ http://mwnewton.com

Mike Newton #LONDON

#4

#LONDON#4 Soho, home to celebrated bars, clubs and restaurants, is also a place where creative people live and work in small spaces that are increasingly under threat. This threat is not just the chain shops, bars and restaurants that have been attracted to the area but expensive residential developments that my change the character forever.

Soho has always had a sizeable number of residents who didn’t move there for a quiet life..

But as property prices inevitably rise, the people who live and work there are being forced to leave and the incomers, rather less Bohemian in character, object to late licensing and club life outside their front doors.

The result of this switch in use and the contingent homogenising and sanitising of Soho is, as musician Tim Arnold points out in a letter to London Mayor Boris Johnson, that appeared in the Times, that this creative centre at the heart of London will be lost.

The British music industry is one of our largest exports. Some of the biggest acts in the world began their careers by performing in small venues in Soho. The Who, The Kinks, Spandau Ballet, The Animals, The Sex Pistols and Oasis to name but a few. If venues like this continue to be removed from our precious landscape, where will the British musical exports of tomorrow be able to showcase their talent and skill to the British music industry? An industry that is largely based in central London.

Tim Arnold et al 2014 The images in this book are taken on a walk one rainy night in 2014 between Oxford Street and Shaftesbury Avenue and are my attempt to capture a little of the atmosphere.

Mike Newton