GENTLY WITH SOHO
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,--The new Westminster Housing Committee are anxious to clear out the slums in their city, and rightly so. They have their eye particularly on Soho, Covent Garden and the crowded parts of Westminster itself. May I plead with them to deal gently with Soho. It is not so very much of a slum after all, and without it London would be very much the poorer. The historical and artistic associations of this little quarter are surely worthy of being preserved in their own streets and . buildings. The very name of Dean Street recalls a flood of absorbing reflections. Here lived the painter Hayman, Sir James Thornhill, W. Hamilton, E. H. Bailey, W. Behnes and James Ward. Here, too, lived William Hogarth and George Morland. Sir Joseph Banks, the naturalist, dwelt at No. 17, and Mrs. Thrale (Dr. Johnson's friend) lived here before her marriage. In Dean Street William Hazlitt spent the last years of his lonely life in the house which is now the Rendmvous Res taurant, while Gerrard Street boasts the names of John Dryden and Edmund Burke. London has lost so many of its landmarks and gained so few, and those that remain should surely be preserved. Let the Westminster Housing Committee deal gently with Soho.—I am, Sir, &c., 10 Church Street, Soho, W. MARTIN.
Previous page
