Name: A Walk with the Lord Mayor in Soho
Start: 2026-02-02T11:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-02-02T12:00:00+00:00
Location: Soho Square - by Tudor-style hut

A former hunting ground became a magnet for immigrants from various countries, resulting in an area rich in history, diversity and culture.
About this Event

A one-hour walk that takes you round a former hunting ground that became a magnet for immigrants from many different countries to create an area rich in history, diversity and culture.

We begin the walk with a war heroine voted the UK’s ‘Greatest Black Briton’ and the country’s richest woman and end in the heart of London’s ‘gay village’ on a street named after a bishop!

On the way we encounter the birthplaces of television and coffee bar culture as well as a snail farm, a fabulously rude hostess who never the less defied the prejudices of time to welcome all, ‘the world’s greatest lover’, the queen who travelled the streets of Soho in a Sedan chair and the first black man to appear on the London stage! We may also encounter a nose or two as well!

The walk will finish on Old Compton Street close to junction with Dean Street.

The Westminster Guides are the official guides of the City of Westminster. Our Association, also known as CWGLA, was established in 2007 and prides itself on quality assured training and support for our guides. You can recognise us by our distinctive yellow/blue badge bearing the City of Westminster's coat of arms.

This year the Lord Mayor of Westminster will be supporting two charities, the proceeds of the 2025-26 walks programme will be donated to these charities.

Hotel School - is a London-based charity founded in 2017 by Jeremy Goring, CEO of The Goring Hotel, and Mick Clarke, CEO of The Passage, London's largest voluntary sector homeless resource centre, investing in people who have experienced homelessness and other disadvantages to equip them with hands on experience within the hospitality industry, since its inception the programme has achieved a 70% success rate of graduates securing employment within the hospitality sector.

The Avenues Youth Project - a best-in-class youth centre who believe every child from 8-18 should have the opportunity to realise their potential, whatever their life circumstances, having built a safe-space youth centre in 1979 is now seeing 1,000 young people benefitting from their programmes each years.