Gerrard Street

Gerrard Street is the main thoroughfare of London's Chinatown, running through the southern part of Soho between Wardour Street and Gerrard Place. It was built between 1677 and 1685 on land held by Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, and developed by the physician Nicholas Barbon, taking its name from the Gerard family.

The street has a long literary and social record. The poet John Dryden lived at number 43, marked by a blue plaque, and in 1764 Samuel Johnson and Joshua Reynolds founded their dining society, known as The Club, at the Turk's Head tavern. Edmund Burke is also commemorated here. By the twentieth century the street was known for nightlife, including Kate Meyrick's 43 Club and the first Ronnie Scott's jazz club in the basement of number 39.

From the 1950s Chinese restaurants and businesses settled along Gerrard Street as the community moved west from the declining Chinatown at Limehouse, drawn by low rents and growing demand for Chinese food. In the late 1980s the street was pedestrianised and fitted with ornamental gates, street furniture and a pagoda. Today it is the recognised centre of Chinatown, lined with restaurants, supermarkets and bakeries, a short walk from the theatres of Shaftesbury Avenue.