Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WALK 5: SOHO TO THE BRITISH
MUSEUM
Starting location and nearest tube station:
Oxford Circus.
Length:
2.5 miles.
Opening hours:
•
S
T
A
NNE
'
S CHURCHYARD
: summer 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; winter 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
p.m.; Fridays until 8.30 p.m.
A gingerbread seller. The text with this print of 1804 tells us: 'Hot
Spiced Gingerbread, sold in oblong flat cakes of one halfpenny each,
very well made, well baked, and kept extremely hot, is a very pleasing
regale to the pedestrians of London in cold and gloomy evenings.'
From Oxford Circus tube station walk east along Oxford Street to Marks and Spencer's
store. This is the site of the Pantheon, which was frequently rebuilt from 1772 and used
for masquerades, assemblies and concerts, including the infamous Cyprians' Balls, organ-
ised by the high-class courtesans. In 1833 it became the Pantheon Bazaar, finally demolished
in 1937. Henry Austen rented a box here, although it is not mentioned in any of Jane's let-
ters.
Continue along Oxford Street, according to Ackermann's
Repository
, 'allowed to be one
of the finest streets in Europe; the effect of which, when lighted in the evening, is very mag-
