Park of the week

189. Soho Square

Soho Square is a garden square, providing a small oasis behind Oxford Street, in the densely built up West End. It is in the heart of Soho which used to be a hunting ground attached to Westminster Palace. 

The Soho area, its name coming from an old hunting call, was largely developed from the late 17th century onwards as London expanded, following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

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 Square after Charles II, and a statue of the king has stood in the square on and off since 1681 – it was finally placed there permanently in 1938.

A 200-person air raid shelter was built under the park during the Second World War, one of dozens in central London. 

The garden was restored and reopened to the public in April 1954. New iron railings and gates were put up in 1959.
At the centre of the square is a mock “Tudorbethan”  building. This was built in 1926 to appear as an octagonal market cross building, incorporating 17th or 18th century beams to hide the above-ground features of a contemporary electricity substation. It’s Grade II listed and is described by English Heritage as a “garden arbour/tool shed”.
The Square is mainly paved, interspersed with four symmetrical lawn areas, with mature trees and shrub planting.

This 2-metre-high tubular rainbow in the square, titled “OHelloSunshine”, was created by London-based artist Graham McLoughlin, and is said to reflect both the local gay community and the NHS rainbow. The rainbow only includes six colours; indigo is missing. Sir Isaac Newton, whose experiments with prisms demonstrated that white light is composed of a spectrum of colours, originally identified six. However, the number seven had long been considered mystical, denoting perfection and completeness. This sort of mysticism fascinated Newton; there are seven days in a week, seven natural notes in most Western music and, in Newton’s time, only seven planets had been discovered. So, he thought there must be seven colours in the rainbow and split purple into indigo and violet. It’s not always easy to differentiate between the two by eye.

Judith Field

Soho Square, London W1D 3QE