Macclesfield Street

Macclesfield Street runs between Gerrard Street and Shaftesbury Avenue and is one of the main streets of London's Chinatown. It takes its name from Charles Gerard, first Earl of Macclesfield, the landowner who also gave his name to neighbouring Gerrard Street.

The Chinese community settled in this part of Soho after the Second World War, encouraged by low rents and the wartime damage that had broken up the older Chinatown in Limehouse. Through the 1950s and 1960s Chinese restaurants, supermarkets and businesses opened around Gerrard Street, in part because returning servicemen had developed a taste for the food while serving in the Far East. Macclesfield Street took its place in that pattern of restaurants and shops.

Improvements to the area followed in the 1980s, when red lanterns were hung and streets were pedestrianised. Chinese-style arches were put up in Gerrard Street in 1985 and 1986, and a further arch was added at Macclesfield Street in the 1990s, marking the northern approach to Chinatown. The street remains busy with diners and connects Chinatown to the theatres of Shaftesbury Avenue.