-13

i remember: soho. 



i remember the first time i went to soho. my dad took me. the purpose of the trip was to visit the 
comic shop dark they were and golden eyed. for the first couple of my 
trips to soho dad came along as a guide and a protector. 
 each trip was one of magic and adventure.

it was only when i started being allowed to go to the west end on my own 

that i discovered the seedy side of soho.
 back then old compton street was awash with porn shops, a boy could go 
blind just looking in the windows. the porn was clearly displayed 
and it was quite hardcore. as fifth and sixth formers we would make our
 pilgrimage to the west end where we would buy records and comics and then 
spend a happy hour or so walking both sides of old compton street 
window shopping porn.

the first time i ever went into one of the stores i felt a mix of fear
 and power, it was my rite of passage (for most of my peers it was
 getting their first drink in a pub, but i had lived in them so no
 adventure there). the first time i ever bought some magazines home i was
 scared shitless that my mum would realise what i had in the bag, while
 she never caught me bringing the stuff in i am sure she found my porn
 stash at least once.
 porn back then could only be found in such shops, no downloading for us
 then. so it meant that there was pretty much something for everyone to browse and buy. and browse i did. some eye-opening moments i can 
tell you. then there was the fear that they would realise that i was
 underage and kick me out, even worse that they would do it before i got 
to buy the stuff i wanted.

soho was also where i first discovered the existence of prostitutes. the first time i saw them was walking towards archer street, at the time there were two casinos located there, so it was a place where money was prominent. it also meant the ladies of the night would congregate, and could be found all day. i was too young to realise what the young ladies were doing hanging around street corners and lounging on cars. it didn’t take them long to alert me to what they were offering: “do you want a fuck guv”. i politely declined and hurried on my way. like many things once you have been made aware of them you can’t help but keep noticing them.
they seemed to come out in droves whenever there was a big sporting event at wembley. they needed more out on the streets as there would large numbers of visitors working their way through soho – either as a pre-game ritual or as solace for not having a ticket. how the income of the working girls must be suffering with the delay to the stadium being built, you would think the english collective of prostitutes would put in a compensation claim.
prostitution in the area has changed dramatically, no longer quite so public and in your face, now the discreet red light and handwritten sign promising models upstairs. not to mention the proliferation of call cards in telephone boxes.


soho is also where i discovered that i had no aptitude for computer games. i am not sure what dragged me into soho’s amusement arcades? maybe it was the bright flashing lights, maybe if was the sounds of the games or the jingle jangle of the one-armed bandits. once i went in i was hooked. the games were 10p a go. sadly i could spend pounds and never really get very far in the games. i quickly realized i was no good at the fighting games, too many buttons for too many combinations. i was quickly bored by the puzzle games, not because i easily solved them, but because i never got beyond the early stages. i was doomed (geddit!) to be a player of straight forward shoot ‘em ups. i was never very good at them.
more often than not i would end up watching the other gamers, people who would stand with a zen like patience as they worked through the levels of the game that they had memorized like the backs of their hand. some would just smoke endlessly watching other gamers around them. others would stand and chat with their friends. many, like myself, would stand in awe and watch, hoping to learn how to play the games.
i never learnt.
but i was a frequent visitor to the arcades of soho. the games got more spectacular – more colourful, more complicated, more sounds and more money. slowly but surely the prices crept up from 10p to 20p to 30p and eventually at 50p i decided that this would be me wasting money at a rate that was stupid.
the last time i wandered into an arcade i was disappointed by the games and by the fact that most of the space was now devoted to one-armed bandits.
but then how can they compete with the explosion of gaming consoles.

soho has changed since i first started going there. the porn shops have been replaced by lots of restaurants, coffee shops, bars and fashion shops. the locals now complain about the noise rather than the low life elements. the magic has changed from something that attracted a young impressionable teenager and is now aimed at the young mid twenties clubber.

given i am mid 40s dirty old man i miss the old soho.