Chinatown, London

Main gate on Wardour Street

Chinatown is an area in the City of Westminster, London, next to the Soho and Theatreland districts. The area is around Gerrard Street and has many Chinese-run businesses, like restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, and souvenir shops. Chinatown is the centre of the Chinese community in London and is popular with tourists visiting the city. London's old Chinatown was in Limehouse in the East End until the 1930s.

History

The first Chinatown in London was in Limehouse, an area in the Docklands of the East End. From the 1880s to 1930s, a small community of Chinese people lived there and opened businesses like restaurants, laundries, and boarding houses for Chinese sailors who visited the Docklands. Limehouse's Chinatown became famous because of exaggerated stories in newspapers and novels about crime, slum housing, and places where people smoked opium. These stories were based on unfair stereotypes of Chinese people, which were common in Britain at the time. During World War II, many places in Limehouse were damaged by bombs, which caused most of the Chinese community to leave, but some older Chinese people still live there.

After the war, many people moved to London from Hong Kong. They opened restaurants in different parts of the city, which helped make Chinese food more popular with Londoners. London's modern Chinatown in the West End had appeared by the 1970s. Before it became Chinatown, the area was a run-down part of the Soho entertainment district, known for its shops, restaurants, and brothels, with Gerrard Street as its main street. Chinese restaurants started to open around Gerrard Street in the 1960s. Today, there are more than 80 restaurants in the area.

In October 2013 and July 2018, one-day shutdowns of businesses in Chinatown were held to protest against the violent actions of officers during immigration raids.

The London Chinese Community Centre (LCCC) was started by Dr. Abraham Lue and has been in Chinatown since 1980. The Centre says it has helped 40,000 people since it began. It moved to 2 Leicester Court, above the Hippodrome Casino, in 2012 after being on Gerrard Street since 1998.

On July 25, 2016, a new Chinatown gate on Wardour Street was opened by Prince Andrew, Duke of York (later Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor). It was made by Chinese artisans and put together in London. The gate is in the style of the Qing dynasty. There was a Chinese-style pavilion at Newport Place, built in the 1980s, which was a popular meeting spot. The pavilion was taken down in 2016 after over thirty years. The development authorities wanted to update the square and make it bigger. Plans to build a new pavilion in a different spot were announced.

Map of the Chinatown area

Geography

The Chinatown area has no official size, but it is usually thought to cover Gerrard Street, the bottom half of Wardour Street, Rupert Street and Rupert Court, a section of Shaftesbury Avenue and Lisle Street, Macclesfield Street and Newport Place, Newport Court and Little Newport Street.

Related pages

• British Chinese

Other websites

• The official Chinatown London website