• At Broadwick Street turn left up to where this street opens up…

 

On your immediate left is 'the Blue Posts' where you’ll see a green Westminster plaque celebrating the life of Jessie Matthews. Born into a huge, poor family here in Soho, she became a big star of British stage and film in the late 1920s and 1930s. Although her career never quite relaunched after the second world war, she staged a comeback when she replaced the lead actress in the radio soap "Mrs Dale's Diary" in the 1960s - a flagship BBC radio production.   ///flags.rate.stable

 

Berwick Street market is open here during the week throughout the working day. There has been a market here since the 1700s but it is now under threat from development in the area. 

 

Across to your left is the 'John Snow pub' which has a plaque and memorabilia celebrating the life and work of this pioneer epidemiologist. In 1854 there was an outbreak of cholera in this area of London. Dr John Snow traced the outbreak to a public water pump nearby and disabled it, thus ending the outbreak. Before this time, the disease was widely thought to be air-borne; Snow's findings showed it to be water-borne. (This part of Soho was developed during 2015/16, obliterating the site of the famous ’cholera’ pump. When the area is restored this section of the walk will be updated.)   ///movie.closer.files

 

A house on the corner of Broadwick and Marshall Streets was the birthplace and childhood home of William Blake whose poetry and art are an important part of British national heritage.

 

• Continue across the wider part of Broadwick Street to view the row of houses on the northern side… 

 

One of these, number 54, displays a blue plaque commemorating Charles Bridgeman, a noted Eighteenth century English landscape gardener. These houses resemble Blake’s house, which was sadly demolished.   ///roofs.panels.reader

 

• Turn back to Poland Street and walk up it past the Star and Garter pub…