Soho on screen : London, Bohemia and cosmopolitanism in British cinema, 1948-1963

London’s Soho is no longer considered the 'demi-monde' of the metropolis. Like an urban village, its rapid gentrification has led to the sanitization of its bohemian past. Since the turn of the 21st century, public campaigns concerned with its preservation as a site of subcultures have sought to protect its reputation in the public imagination as a melting pot of desire, subversion, repulsion and transgression. After the Second World War, Soho’s milieu of hedonists, beatniks, impresarios, restauranteurs, strip-tease artists and spivs was rooted in its historical function as a refuge for immigrants and its early modern development as a centre of consumption. Its cosmopolitan identity was intrinsically linked to the commercial renaissance of the area following the wartime devastation of London. This was chiefly driven by local entrepreneurs in consonance with the popular press who promoted their small businesses, cafés, restaurants, cinemas, strip clubs and bookshops to the nation. However, despite Soho’s rich cultural history and the growth in literature examining the relationship between cinema and the city in the last twenty years, there remains an absence of academic scholarship on the representation of this particular urban space. This thesis seeks to fill this research gap by providing a detailed study of Soho in post-war British cinema from 1948 to 1963 and taking an interdisciplinary approach which draws upon historical, cultural and urban studies of the area. I will provide close analysis of twelve films and theatrically released documentaries from a filmography of over one hundred Soho set productions. These are predominantly lowbudget, exploitation films which, I argue, are worthy of discussion as exemplars of British and international filmmaking in a time and place of intense social transformation, technological innovation and growing permissiveness. I will also consider how these filmmakers mediated the spaces of Soho by shooting on location with some additional use of studio sets. In my analysis of these films, I will draw attention to the impact of cinematic frameworks and creative personnel upon the formulation of cinematic images of Soho. By shedding light on these neglected films, this thesis opens up a wider discussion around the significance of specific localities as depicted by London films. Placed in the context of Soho and London history, it contributes towards the ever expanding urban and cultural scope of British cinema scholarship.