How quiet is Soho these Covid days?  It truly is heartbreaking. 

We miss our local haunts, favourite coffee shops and the colourful people who run them and visit them.  People watching has stopped, and the floods of people who come to the West End are here no more.

Would visitors to the West End want to pop into Soho for a food-stall pita sandwich?  Or would they want to have brunch, drink cocktails, and choose from a wide range of world food restaurants?

After Covid-19, visitors and residents will only have one or the other, and the Westminster Council will be responsible for the food outlets we have left.

SAVE OUR CAFÉS & RESTAURANTS

Small hospitality businesses are struggling to survive in Soho. Boutique eateries like restaurants, pizzerias, cafés, diners, and coffee shops are being crippled financially by Covid-19. 

BUT YOU CAN HELP

STOP HOT FOOD BEING SOLD IN SOHO FOOD MARKETS - FOR 1 YEAR

The Westminster Council charges hot food stalls upwards of £15 per day for their stalls, whereas they charge small businesses a fortune in rates.

In addition, rents for small food premises costs in the region of £250k per year and landlords are mercilessly and relentlessly demanding rent be paid immediately - during Covid 19. 

Restauranteurs are handing back their keys and walking away into bankruptcy.  

PLEASE HELP

If we can get the Westminster Council to stop HOT food being sold in food markets for a year, our Soho hospitality businesses may survive.  If they make it, we get to keep the flavour of Soho - and its character - alive.

WE ARE ONLY TALKING ABOUT HOT FOOD

Fruit and veg sellers, dairy stalls and other stalls selling raw, foodie ingredients add variety and quality to a food market. 

Those stalls don't compete with restaurants and will bring a more eco-friendly way of shopping for food to Soho (instead of having to go to a supermarket chain and take home a basket of plastic).

What would you likely go and buy at a food market?  Olives, truffle oil, artisan breads, cheeses, pickles, jams, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, spices, herbs, fresh flowers, honey on the comb, cured meats, eggs, venison sausages, fruit, confectionery, world foods, exotic fruit and vegetables and so much more.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON FOOD HYGIENE & STALL STAFF SAFETY

Here's another thing we need to think about, before you go.

How will hot food stalls:

(1)   Keep staff and customers safe by enabling staff to wash their hands regularly without hand-washing facilities? (Both during and after Covid?)

(2)   Help stall-holders wash pots and pans in a street with no washing up facilities?

(3)   Reduce the fire hazard that is caused by multiple gas cylinders open and in close proximity to each other in a small street?  Surrounded by open flame cookers...

The Council is letting down the staff at these stalls, as well as the customers who visit them, and the restaurants opposite them.

Let's save SOHO and its unique vibe.  Keep our restaurants alive.