'Nights Out' author Judith Walkowitz discusses Cosmopolitan Soho

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

7.30pm, Bishopsgate Institute, London
Between the late Victorian era and the end of the Second World War, London's Soho underwent a spectacular transformation. Infamous for sex, crime and political disloyalty it became a centre of culinary and cultural tourism serving patrons of nearby shops and theatres. Nights Out author Judith Walkowitz draws on vivid stories and unforgettable characters to reveal how Soho became a showcase for a new cosmopolitan identity. Join her for this fascinating event at the Bishopsgate Institute.

Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Bishopsgate Institute, London, EC2M 4QH
Tickets: £8 (£6 concessions). Visit the Bishopsgate Institute website to book tickets or call 020 7392 9200

More about 'Nights Out'

London's Soho district underwent a spectacular transformation between the late Victorian era and the end of the Second World War: its fin-de-siecle buildings and dark streets infamous for sex, crime, political disloyalty, and ethnic diversity became a centre of culinary and cultural tourism servicing patrons of nearby shops and theatres. Indulgences for the privileged and the upwardly mobile edged a dangerous, transgressive space imagined to be "outside" the nation.

Treating Soho as exceptional, but also representative of London's urban transformation, Judith Walkowitz shows how the area's foreignness, liminality, and porousness were key to the explosion of culture and development of modernity in the first half of the twentieth century. She draws on a vast and unusual range of sources to stitch together a rich patchwork quilt of vivid stories and unforgettable characters, revealing how Soho became a showcase for a new cosmopolitan identity.