Gerrard Street, London, Guida per visitatori e cosa fare nei dintorni

Gerrard Street is the main street of London's Chinatown, a short, lantern-hung pedestrian street in Soho, in the West End of London. It is lined with Chinese restaurants, bakeries and shops, and it is the best-known address of the neighbourhood's Chinese community. It is also a street with a long literary and musical past.

The story behind it

Gerrard Street was laid out in the later 17th century, when Soho was being built over as a fashionable district, and it takes its name from Charles Gerard, Earl of Macclesfield. Its early residents included the poet John Dryden, who lived at number 43 until his death in 1700. In the 18th century the street was known for taverns and clubs, among them the Turk's Head, where Samuel Johnson and his circle are linked with the Literary Club.

The Chinatown you see today is much newer. Chinese businesses began to gather in this part of Soho in the second half of the 20th century, and the street was later pedestrianised and decorated with traditional Chinese-style gates and lanterns. In 1959 Ronnie Scott opened his first jazz club at number 39, before it moved to nearby Frith Street, so the street also has a place in London's music history. Stories of secret societies in the area do circulate, but the claims about 1920s Tong gangs on this particular street are not well documented, so treat them as folklore rather than fact.

What to look for

• Look up at the red lanterns strung across the street, which give the street its colour, especially after dark.
• Find the ornate Chinese-style gate at the end of the street, a marker of where Chinatown begins.
• Check the shopfronts and upper floors for bilingual signs in English and Chinese, and for the roast ducks hanging in restaurant windows.
• Watch for the blue plaques and old Georgian brickwork above the shopfronts, which hint at the street's older, pre-Chinatown life.

Tips for your visit

• Allow 20 to 30 minutes just to walk the street and its side alleys, or longer if you plan to eat.
• Go in the late afternoon or evening, when the lanterns are lit and the restaurants are busy. Mornings are quieter for photos.
• Gerrard Street is outdoors and free to walk through. Check current opening hours for individual restaurants and shops.
• Leicester Square, Soho's bars and theatres, and Shaftesbury Avenue are all a few minutes away on foot. Lunar New Year brings big crowds, so plan accordingly.

See it on a quest

Gerrard Street fits naturally into West End, London Detective Mystery: Infiltrate a Secret Society., a detective-themed walk through the West End. You reach the street on foot as one stop of a longer route through the area, the app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle using what is in front of you. It is a paid quest, and one ticket covers the whole group. You can start whenever you like, with no guide and no group to join.