Soho has for many years been the city's red light district but having said that, the naughty book shops have been moving out for some time and migrating to the Kings Cross area as the local council, local residents and local business try to clean up Soho's image. There are, however, still many naughty book shops, naughty cinemas and strip joints left. If this kind of venue is on your itinerary be warned - there are loads of horror stories about how people who go into these seedy clubs get ripped off.

A 'hostess' comes over and sits down with them. They offer to buy her a drink and she's bound to go for champagne! It may not be real champagne but they are still entitled to charge whatever they like for it. There are many reports of this legal rip off. A bunch of kids who went into a seedy bar, bought four soft drinks and were charged ú50. They had to fork out all of their pocket money to avoid being sorted out in the alley round the back! And many an unsuspecting tourist is forced to pay bills of hundreds of pounds for a few drinks.

Soho is also known as London's film and TV land. Most of the big film companies have offices here and viewing theatres, dubbing and editing suites abound. You will also find heaps of good restaurants in this part of town.

The Soho Jazz festival is a very successful annual entertainment which usually takes place in September and gives new meaning to the phrase "Swinging London". The Chinese New Year celebrations also spill out of Chinatown each year, into Soho next-door and really make the area come alive.

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