From yéyé girls to Carnaby Street, Situationism to the World’s End in Chelsea, London and Paris have long had a symbiotic cultural relationship, often overlooked.
When in London, one thinks of Soho, and of iconic venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, Ain’t Nothin’ But, and Cafe Boheme. London’s cultural life is so often defined by its ‘swinging’ past, and yet, much of the city owes its character to its French links and history.
As I stroll down the cobbled streets, I am taken back in time.
Starting at the dawn of the 50s, Soho became the beatnik centre of London. First, there was Le Macabre, a now cultish whisper on Wardour Street: coffin-shaped tables, poetry performances, jive dancing and political debates à la the Left Bank. Existentialism, indeed.
Paris seeped into Soho’s young and hip, laying the ground for a coming youthquake.
But this relationship between London and Paris stretches back much further. From 1680, a mass migration of French Huguenots settled in Soho, so many that the historian William Maitland wrote it was ‘an easy matter for a stranger to imagine himself in France.’
Walking from Covent Garden and over to Chinatown, you could feel the same.
You might walk past the jasmine pearl tea of Mariage Frères, or the jade green facade of l’Escargot, operating since 1927. The famous Kettner’s, established in 1867 by Napoleon III’s chef Auguste Kettner, still stands, albeit co-opted by Soho House.
The French House was popular with the French government in exile during WWII. Today, it is a no-frills bistro popular with entertainment types. French flags wave proudly off the facade. The handwritten menu? Madeleines soaked in Madagascan rum, steak frites, and garlic confits with choucroute.
Then, to Brasserie Zedel, which has become the opulently furnished, dangerously reasonable venue of choice for those seeking the perfect soixante quinze. It’s inescapable that the flashing red light displays of the area are comparable in their scarlet to that of the tasselled curtains of Pigalle.
Dean Street, also built in the 1680s by French immigrants, quickly became a centre for the arts, haunted by Bacon, Freud and Auerbach.
Clive Jennings described the area’s “Dean Street shuffle” between The French, The Coach & Horses and The Colony, with forays into The Gargoyle, The Groucho and Blacks. This leads me to the literary salon.
Even though the concept had roots in Italy, I’d argue it was the French literary movements of the 17th and 18th centuries that really made the salon a worldwide export.
This ripe history of the coffee house and a surrounding fairy circle of Parisian-style bistros has become fertile ground for a renaissance of the form and event. France transformed the original Italian salon into a cultural export, something portable and influential.
It may have peaked in 17th-18th century France, but it shares strong similarities with much of the current London nightlife and literary scene.
The emphasis is on literary exchange, social performance and intellectual debate. Interdisciplinary nights are popular too; poets might respond live to paintings, or exhibitions might collaborate with perfumers on a bespoke basis.
These gatherings often blur the boundaries between audience and participants, with readings being accompanied by the audience’s delighted shouts or criticism.
Whether it’s tucked away in a Royal Academy Drawing Room, or the basement of a Boxing Club, the tradition of the salon is alive amongst literary conversation and gin being handed out from ice boxes.
The Soho Reading Series has been much written about, with other popular events such as Deleted Scenes, or Adult Entertainment often tapping into the seedy traces left by yesteryear.
These salons are book launches, literary readings, and symposiums, with associated events like Lost Property offering lectures.
Soho is not just coincidentally hosting these events. Its French legacy makes it fertile ground for such gatherings. There is, arguably, a kind of cultural memory that lingers from Greek to Wardour Street.
Even if indirect, the patterns repeat, with London’s intellectual life embedding itself in the nightlife in a way distinctly Parisian.
What does this revival say about London today? Perhaps a reaction against digital alienation, or a simpler desire for in-person cultural exchange.
There is something to be said, too, for a post-Brexit London separating itself from the rest of the UK, continuing a European cultural lineage that pushes for pollination and mingling rather than operating in isolation.
A night out in Soho now resembles that of a centuries-old tradition. In attending one of the original Soho Reading nights a while back at Black’s, I remember entering the building, a mixture of dark teal walls and leather upholstery. I listened to poems of classical reception that reminded me of Racine, and as the boards creaked below, if I had closed my eyes, I could easily have been sitting on the floor of a room off the Rue de Richelieu.
To Shop
https://www.mariagefreres.com/en/
https://www.maisonbertaux.com/
To Eat and Drink
https://www.brasseriezedel.com/
https://www.lescargot.co.uk/
https://www.cafeboheme.co.uk/
https://www.frenchhousesoho.com/
To be Entertained
https://www.instagram.com/adultsentertained/
https://www.instagram.com/sohoreadingseries/
https://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/
https://www.aintnothinbut.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/deletedscenesbypj/
Lead photo credit : Photo: Tamsyn Chandler ©
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