SOHO’S NEW RESORTS

Evening Star, Issue 20309, 18 October 1929, Page 1

SOHO’S NEW RESORTS

New haunts of undesirables are springing up in the West End of London in place of those frequently-raided establishments where intoxicating liquors used to be sold until all hours in tin? morning. A large number of questionable “ cafe bars ” have during the past year come into being around the tortuous maze of streets which composes Solm. Pernicious as were the vanished night clubs (where drink: was_ often tho least harmful of the commodities sold), they were at least under control of the police authorities.

But the scmi-contincntal eales which have taken their place are doubly to be feared because of their immunity from police raids, the strong card in their hands being that they sell no intoxicants. The truth is that _ these bars have now become the meeting place of every type of undesirable that a big city can produce. One bar, which usually remains comparatively empty up to midnight, is ono blue haze of smoke from the cigarettes of men and women by 1 a.m. Surprisingly large number's or -the men there have those betraying scars on some portion of the face —the life disfiguration that is left by a razor slash.