Soho

Soho grew from an 18th-century immigrant quarter into London's red-light and jazz district before reinventing itself as the city's media and nightlife hub. Old Compton Street anchors one of Europe's most established gay villages, while Berwick Street's market stalls and record shops recall its bohemian past. By day it's full of production companies and lunch crowds; by night, theatre-goers spill from West End stages into pubs, cocktail bars, and Chinatown's edge on Gerrard Street. It remains determinedly un-precious — grubby in patches, glamorous in others, and always crowded.