Soho in the Eighties

In the 1980s Daniel Farson published Soho in the Fifties. Here is its sequel. That decade saw the brilliant flowering of a daily tragic comedy enacted in pubs like the Coach and Horses or The French and in drinking clubs like the Colony Room. These were places of constant conversation fueled by alcohol. The cast was more numerous and improbable than any soap opera. Some were widely known - Francis Bacon, Jeffrey Bernard, Tom Baker and John Hurt. Just as important were the regular actors: The Village Postmistress, the Red Baron, Granny Smith. The bite came from underlying tragedy: lost spouses, lost jobs, pennilessness, homelessness and death. Christopher Howse laments the loss of the Soho he once knew, where quaint butchers sold delicious grouse and beef to the locals, people conversed loudly and raucously in pubs without resorting to their mobile phones and the vegetable stalls gave out fresh mint for free. His Soho friends are now dead and what's left of Soho past is in danger as developers move in. But back then Soho seemed to him like home. That Soho has now gone: the actors have died and the talk dried up. But while it lasted, time in those smoky rooms always seemed to be half past ten, not long to closing time. As the author relates, he never laughed so much as he did in Soho in the Eighties.