Editing Soho Square (section)

==History==
[[File:Monmouth House, Soho Square.gif|thumb|[[Monmouth House]] in Soho Square was built for the [[Duke of Monmouth]]. It was later the French ambassador's residence, but it was demolished in 1773.]]
[[File:Soho Square SW corner From an aquatint in John B. Papworths Select Views of London 1816 edited.jpg|thumb|Soho Square in 1816. At that time farm animals were often driven into London.]]
[[File:Soho Square Charles II.JPG|thumb|right|The statue of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] by [[Caius Gabriel Cibber]] stands at the centre of Soho Square]]

Built in the late 1670s, Soho Square was in its early years one of the most fashionable places to live in London. It was originally called King's Square, for King [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]. The [[Statue of Charles II, Soho Square|statue of Charles II]] was carved by Danish sculptor [[Caius Gabriel Cibber]] during the King's reign in 1681 and made the centrepiece of the square; since it has returned it has not been in the centre.<ref name=Cibber/> The development lease to convert the immediately surrounding fields, for {{frac|53|1|4}} years, was granted in 1677 to Richard Frith, citizen (elector of the Corporation of London) and bricklayer.<ref name=solintro/> Ratebooks (of the [[vestry]]) continued to call the square ''King Square'' until the first decade of the 19th century; however, [[John Rocque's Map of London, 1746]] and [[Richard Horwood]]'s in 1792–99 mark it as '''Soho Square'''.<ref name=solintro/>

By the early 19th century, the statue, fountain and attendant figures was described as "in a most wretched mutilated state; and the inscriptions on the base of the pedestal quite illegible".<ref name=Cibber>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41027&strquery=Cibber "Soho Square Area: Portland Estate: Soho Square Garden"] in ''Survey of London'' volumes 33 and 34 (1966) [[St Anne Soho]], pp. 51–53. Date accessed: 12 January 2008.</ref> In 1875, it was removed during alterations in the square by Thomas Blackwell, of [[Crosse & Blackwell]], the condiment firm (which had premises at No.&nbsp;20-21 Soho Square from the late 1830s until the early 1920s), who gave it for safekeeping to his friend, artist [[Frederick Goodall]], with the intention that it might be restored.<ref name=Cibber/> Goodall placed the statue on an island in his lake at [[Grim's Dyke]], where it remained when dramatist [[W. S. Gilbert]] purchased the property in 1890, and there it stayed after Gilbert's death in 1911. In her will, Lady Gilbert directed that the statue be returned, and it was restored to Soho Square in 1938.<ref>[http://www.londonremembers.com/memorial/?id=216 Photo of the statue] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061030210744/http://www.londonremembers.com/memorial/?id=216 |date=30 October 2006}}</ref>

The politician [[William Beckford (politician)|William Beckford]] lived at No.&nbsp;22 from 1751, and his son [[William Thomas Beckford]], author of the [[Gothic novel]] ''[[Vathek]]'', may have been born there.

In the 1770s, the naturalist [[Joseph Banks]] who had circumnavigated the globe with [[James Cook]], moved into No.&nbsp;32 in the south-west corner of the square. In 1778, Banks was elected president of the [[Royal Society]] and his home became a kind of scientific salon hosting scientists visiting from around the world. His library and herbarium containing many plants gathered during his travels were open to the general public.

Between 1778 and 1836 the square was home to the infamous White House brothel at the [[Manor House, 21 Soho Square]].<ref>{{cite book |last=During |first=Simon |title=Modern Enchantments: The Cultural Power of Secular Magic |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=2004 |pages=110–111 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2eEK-55hgKMC&q=%22the+white+house%22+%22soho+square%22&pg=PA110 |quote=... the famous magic brothel, the White House at Soho Square, in which commercial sex was enhanced by dark, baroque special-effects and natural magic devices|isbn=978-0-674-01371-1}}</ref> In 1852, the Hospital for Women (begun nine years earlier at [[Red Lion Square]]) moved to No.&nbsp;30 to accommodate 20 more beds. Twelve years later it bought 2 [[Frith Street]]; the old site was remodelled in 1908. It moved and merged in 1989 into the [[Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital]], Euston Road.<ref name="WeinrebKeay2011">{{cite book |last1=Hibbert |first1=Christopher |last2=Weinreb |first2=Ben |last3=Keay |first3=John |last4=Keay |first4=Julia |title=The London Encyclopaedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xa0D0PqiwfEC&pg=PA287 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |edition=3rd |date=9 May 2011 |page=287 |isbn=978-0-230-73878-2}}</ref> Eleven artists whose addresses are given as being in Soho Square in exhibition catalogues, whose names do not appear in the vestry ratebooks, are listed by the 1966 Survey of London by historian F H W Sheppard.<ref name=solintro/>

A common for commercial/high demand areas sequence of house rebuilding and renovation, which had begun in the 1730s when many of the houses built in the 1670s and 1680s were becoming dilapidated and old-fashioned, continued for the next one-and-a-half centuries. After the 1880s the rate of change was considerably faster. Between 1880 and 1914, 11 of the 38 old houses in the square were rebuilt or considerably altered. The majority of the new buildings provided office accommodation only and the residential, mercantile and manufacturing elements in the square declined. However, three of the eleven houses were demolished to make way for church buildings.<ref name=solintro/>

Two of the original houses, No.s&nbsp;10 and 15, still stand. At No.s&nbsp; 8 and 9 is the [[French Protestant Church of London]], built in 1891–93. [[Fauconberg House]] was on the north side of the square until its demolition in 1924.<ref name="WeinrebKeay2011" />

A 200-person [[air raid shelter]] was built under the park during the [[Second World War]], one of dozens in central London. In 2015, [[Westminster City Council]] announced plans to put it up for sale.<ref>[https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/bomb-shelter-under-soho-square-could-be-londons-next-top-restaurant-venue-9989241.html "Bomb shelter under Soho Square could be London's next top restaurant venue"], ''London Evening Standard'', 2015</ref> In April 1951, the residents' Soho Square Garden Committee leased the garden to Westminster City Council for 21 years; the garden was not restored and opened to the public until April 1954. New iron railings and gates were provided in 1959 by the Soho Square Garden Committee with the assistance of Westminster City Council.<ref name=Cibber/>

[[Burroughes Hall]] was an important billiards and snooker venue in Soho Square from 1903 until it closed in 1967. The hall was in the premises of Burroughes & Watts Ltd., which had been at 19 Soho Square since 1836.<ref name=bwheritage>{{Cite web|url=http://www.burroughesandwatts.com/bw_heritage.html|title = Burroughes & Watts® Heritage}}</ref>

During the 1970s and 1980s Number [[13 Soho Square]] was home to [[Richard Williams (animator)|Richard Williams]] Animation, an animation studio which produced many award-winning films, including ''[[A Christmas Carol (TV special)|A Christmas Carol]]'', which won the [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for Best Animated Short in 1972.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=jUOWDwAAQBAJ&dq=richard+williams+13+soho+square&pg=PT50 Anderson, Ross, ''Pulling a Rabbit out of a Hat'''] Retrieved 20 August 2023</ref>