User:Mollymoggssoho/Molly moggs soho

The Famous Molly Moggs sits at No. 2 Old Compton Street at the far west end of Soho. Now a Theatre and Cabaret bar, it was built as a coaching inn around 1731. Originally named The Coach And Horses, it became Molly Moggs in 1981, re-named after a rather illustrious local historical character once married to a successful Sea Captain.

In the mid nineteenth century the Soho area became a commune and meeting place of foreign occupants and artists in particular those from France after the suppression in Paris of the Paris Commune. At this time the poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine often frequented this place.

In 1961 this place was mentioned in the famous Colin Wilson novel 'Adrift in Soho', which perfectly captures the transient world of the Boho Soho drifter. The hero, Harry Preston ends up here after leaving the North of England. "Afrer a few minutes, a bearded youth came in with an arty looking girl; she wore thick red stockings and a duffle coat. I tried smiling at her, but she looked away as if i were invisible".

In the present, Molly Moggs sits in the heart of London's gay district and is still frequented by artists from around the world, and over the past decade has had the cream of London's drag artistes tread it's boards.