Soho / Chinatown
It was eerie yet energising to see my favourite part of town all boarded up. There is a hopeful paradox in this state of suspension, as the activity behind the boards has ceased, yet the street is hammered at and activated with intense works, the kind of which I have never seen in Soho. Construction noise will always exist in this city, even after the damn apocalypse.
Doors cease to allow access and windows disappear under opaque sheets of plywood, hardening the threshold between inside and out, and providing increased affordance for the display of messages. More boards = more active surfaces.
The opposite seems to be happening in residential areas, where the domestic has been spilling into the public, and transitional spaces are now becoming new loci for activity: the front steps, the balcony, the communal corridor, the windows and doors are open and porous.
Soho, on the other hand, as many nightlife areas in other cities I would imagine, has sealed off its entertainment spaces completely, which has activated its surfaces like never before. Bars and restaurants are closed but the energy is still there, and the overwhelming sense is of only a temporary suspension.
These surfaces are full of inspiration, energy and unrest.
Urban walls are magnetic callers and reliable archives.
Rainforest cafe in Piccadilly 
The Criterion in Piccadilly 
NHS <3 Regent Street 
freedom 
no ills 
New Groucho politics 
ply board x black board 
no more access 
shut down 
off limits 
closing in progress 
love is a rainbow, hate is a shadow 
to love is to be persecuted 
#maskup flyposting 
spray paint politics 
queer rights are human rights / porn is a human need 
stay safe but remail free 
Deanio X work everywhere 
GAY 
alert rainbows 
good spot 
boards and street works 
old boards, new boards 
Soho Theatre 
surface canvas 
active alleys 
half boards 
mixed boards 
masked queen 
black out 
no access 
protected 
Bar Italia is far 
NHS x ZIMA 
hidden 
out of sight 
closed New Loon Moon 
back soon 
no more gambling 
colour match 
Tories out 
“Raciest” Tories
