The theatres in the area became hook-up spots, particularly the London Pavilion, a musical hall that later became a part of the London Trocadero shopping centre (and which until recently, rather fittingly, housed Body Worlds: an exhibition of human bodies, preserved through plastination).ĭuring the 1895 trials of Oscar Wilde, it became clear that the writer frequented the area, kissing waiters at the Soho restaurant Kettner’s (recently re-opened) and hosting orgies at the Savoy Hotel. Oscar Wilde frequented Soho, as became apparent in his court trials. According to Historic England, a man named Jack Saul even roamed the roads, handing out cards advertising an all-male brothel on Cleveland Street. With this entertainment district came a rise in sex work, and Soho soon nabbed itself the moniker ‘the Meat Rack’. In the late 1880s, the West End underwent some regeneration: Piccadilly Circus was expanded, and theatres and music halls sprung up around Shaftesbury Avenue. By the beginning of the 19th Century, Soho had become destitute and overcrowded.
