SOHO

Charing Cross might be the geographical centre of London, but for me the centre is Soho. Fitzroy Square, where I lived when I came to the city, was gentrified and quiet. Soho was noisy, gritty and 'open late'. I thought this was the stuff of proper cities and it suited me. Living in the centre I always travelled on foot. I would visit the Troy Bar in Hanway Street on my way south then, after crossing Oxford Street, I would enter the Soho 'quarter' - that heady grid of dense, lower rise streets. For me it was always night-time in Soho.

Deep in the heart of Soho, on Brewer Street, was Madame Jojo’s. Madame Jojo’s was a late night club, a focus for the burlesque, for social experimentation, for gathering, dancing and discussion ’til sunrise. The entrance was small and in some ways unassuming during the day. At night though it was ablaze with the warmth of red light. The doorway was flanked by two highly decorated panels, prints in the Japanese fashion, depicting a pattern of peacocks gyrating on a crimson background.

Back in 2016 I was invited to write about Soho for a London magazine. On doing this I decided to make a series of city walks through the Soho quarter, taking in the cafes, the streets, the people and the sites and sounds. I walked along Brewer Street and stopped at Madame Jojo’s. It was 11am. The street was quiet and the club had finally closed its doors for good. The printed peacocks were still in place although the entrance was boarded up with metal panels covered with stickers. I took this single photograph. A year later the place existed no longer, a layer of Soho rubbed out. It’s fair to say the place was replaced with some generally unimaginative architecture, probably endorsed by some developers, designers and city planners who didn’t really think that a characterful sense of place was important. London deserved better, most especially Soho. Many people’s night time memories over 50 years of the club’s existence were now just that; memories.

The idea that a city contains places where architecture and people intertwine through memories while looking forwards to the future is a powerful one. Interesting cities should metamorphose in imaginative ways. I had always enjoyed how Madame Jojo’s showed its face to the street using people and these printed panels of art that captured the essence of the place.

Stephen McGrath

Madame Jojo’s; Soho London 2016

Now in 2026, these artworks are a tribute to the memories of past nights; the night time red, the warmth, the dancing and the people. The peacocks have been redrawn and recoloured; they twirl in the paintings amongst colours and textures, and they dance from dusk till dawn. This is art made from the city.