Day 12:01 am

  • Soho Night & Day – a lost book of a lost world…

    Soho Night & Day-Frank Norman & Jeffrey Bernard-Afterhours Sleaze and Dignity

    Talking of lost corners of the world (see Day #29/365)…

    Part of a (smallish) library of books that document Soho back in the day… I used to have this Soho Night & Day book – I think I bought it for tuppence ha’penny back in the day from a charity shop or maybe a second hand shop…

    …now, well, it’ll cost you a pretty penny, particularly the hardback edition.

    It’s a raw written and photographed snapshot of Soho in the mid to late 1960s and now seems like a capturing of a world far, far away, particularly as the redevelopment (or literal demolishing to give it a probably more precise word) of that corner of the world has gathered pace somewhat.

    Soho Night & Day-Frank Norman & Jeffrey Bernard-Afterhours Sleaze and Dignity-4I stumbled upon this description of the book online which seemed to sum up the book/s rather well:

    Soho Night & Day-Frank Norman & Jeffrey Bernard-Afterhours Sleaze and Dignity-2…a gravelly love letter to Soho, London. About 40 or 50 so real life vignettes written by Frank Norman, detailing both the history of the once notorious streets of Soho (Old Compton, Dean, Brewer, Greek, Poland, Berwick, Wardour, Romilly) and the stories of the larger than life characters who once graced its streets, restaurants, clip joints, alley ways, bars and clubs like old neon bulbs which once lit up a once upon night but whose names are largely forgotten or have entered urban folklore.

    (Indeed, the book was written/photographed by two of those whose names have to different degrees entered those annals of inner city folklore from lives, living and (sometimes) working amongst those streets – Frank Norman and Jeffrey Bernard.)

    Peruse the paperback here and if it’s still there – a resonable sized preview of the book here. The above writing can be found in full here.

     

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