Last Days of Soho
London’s most infamous neighbourhood has a glamorous mythos.
伦敦最臭名昭著的街区有一个迷人的神话。
Meet the dwindling band of residents who call it home.
来认识一下这里日益减少的居民吧。
Soho is poised at a critical juncture.
Soho正处于一个关键时刻。
The issue lies in the rancorous disagreements between its various constituents about the kind of future that should be pursued in this square mile of prime real estate.
问题在于，不同选民之间对于这一方圆英里的优质房地产应该追求什么样的未来存在着激烈的分歧。
In October, the Mayor of London’s Office overruled the recommendations of local councillors and are now entertaining the idea of pedestrianising the whole neighbourhood, a suggestion that has outraged the dwindling number of people living there.
十月份，伦敦市长办公室否决了当地议员的建议，现在正在考虑将整个街区设置为步行街的想法，这一建议激怒了居住在那里的人数不断减少的人。
Soho’s more recent history is often told in terms of steady gentrification, with its sleazy edges smoothed off by the remorseless march of time and capital.
苏豪区最近的历史常常以稳步的中产阶级化来讲述，其肮脏的边缘被时间和资本的无情前进所磨平。
Its dense warren of interlocking streets have long carried a reputation for cosmopolitanism, glamour and seediness.
其密集的、环环相扣的街道长期以来一直以国际化、魅力和肮脏而闻名。
And, for centuries, the area has served as the epicentre of London’s sex trade, even in its dwindling contemporary form.
而且，几个世纪以来，该地区一直是伦敦性交易的中心，即使在当代形式日益萎缩的情况下也是如此。
As the millennium drew closer, Soho drifted toward respectability, with property prices and commercial rents beginning their steady climb upwards.
随着千禧年的临近，苏豪区逐渐变得受人尊敬，房地产价格和商业租金开始稳步上涨。
The transgressive, countercultural neighbourhood of old began morphing into a mainstream tourist destination and hospitality mecca, for good and ill.
无论好坏，昔日的反叛、反文化社区开始演变成主流旅游目的地和热情好客的圣地。
The sex trade gradually receded – in visibility, at least – to be replaced, the cliché goes, by a neater, more homogenised reality, a process spearheaded by major developers and landowners, like Soho Estates, run by the ebullient John James, and Shaftesbury Capital, founded by the considerably more understated Levy family.
俗话说，性交易逐渐消退——至少在可见度上——取而代之的是一种更整洁、更同质化的现实，这一过程由主要开发商和土地所有者牵头，比如由热情洋溢的约翰·詹姆斯经营的苏荷庄园，以及由低调得多的列维家族创立的沙夫茨伯里资本。
I’d become interested in this increasingly bitter debate around Soho’s future at the start of the year.
今年年初，我对围绕 Soho 的未来展开的日益激烈的争论产生了兴趣。
Having long covered all manner of complicated squabbles across the capital, something in the story felt fresh.
由于长期报道了首都各地各种复杂的争吵，故事中的某些东西让人感觉新鲜。
If the apparent three-way stand-off between ‘business’, local authority and residents was familiar, the prospect of reporting on it in this part of town was not.
如果说“企业”、地方当局和居民之间明显的三向对峙是熟悉的，那么在城镇的这一地区进行报道的前景却并不熟悉。
Like most Londoners, I have my own private Soho myth kitty, a 15-year-plus patchwork of nights on the tiles, after-work pints, weekend rambles and random, piecemeal weirdness to contend with.
和大多数伦敦人一样，我也有自己的私人 Soho 神话小猫，它是由 15 多年的夜晚在瓷砖上、下班后品脱啤酒、周末漫步和随意、零散的怪异事件拼凑而成的。
And, in trying to unpick the various claims and counterclaims regarding the enrichment or desecration of Soho, I realised that the concerns of the area’s small, centuries-old residential community had never really been factored into them.
而且，在试图澄清有关苏荷区的丰富或亵渎的各种主张和反主张时，我意识到该地区历史悠久的小型住宅社区的担忧从未真正被考虑在内。
Beverly Elie doesn’t have too much time for nostalgia.
贝弗利·埃利 (Beverly Elie) 没有太多时间怀旧。
A lot has changed since the 59-year-old first moved to Soho in the summer of 1989.
自 1989 年夏天这位 59 岁的老人首次搬到 Soho 以来，发生了很多变化。
Elie, who was born with arthrogryposis, a rare disorder with severe impact on everyday movement, did not experience the easiest of upbringings.
埃利出生时患有关节挛缩症，这是一种罕见的疾病，严重影响日常运动，他的成长经历并不轻松。
Her Dominican birth mother was physically abusive, when she was present at all.
当她在场时，她的多米尼加生母就对她进行身体虐待。
Elie spent several years boomeranging in and out of the care system, before securing a two-bed local authority flat with a friend in a quiet block of flats just off Dean Street.
埃利花了几年时间在护理系统中进进出出，然后与一位朋友在迪恩街附近一处安静的公寓楼租了一套有两张床的地方当局公寓。
‘It was sheer bliss.
'那是纯粹的幸福。
Like life was really starting up, you know.’
就像生活真的开始了一样，你知道。
Elie has been in the same block ever since.
从那时起，埃利就一直在同一个街区。
For the past 28 years, in the same one-bedroom flat we are sitting in on an overcast Tuesday afternoon in late September.
在过去的 28 年里，九月底一个阴沉的星期二下午，我们坐在同一个一居室公寓里。
It’s where many of the major events of her adulthood have played out, good, bad and indifferent.
她成年后发生的许多重大事件都在这里发生，无论是好的、坏的还是无关紧要的。
It’s where her son was raised and where she continues to cultivate a small potted garden by the front door.
这是她儿子长大的地方，也是她继续在前门种植一个小盆栽花园的地方。
Neighbours have come and gone, some longer mourned than others.
邻居们来了又走，有些人哀悼的时间比其他人更长。
Being the heart of central London, noise – from revellers, residents and car traffic – has always been a fact of life.
作为伦敦市中心的心脏地带，来自狂欢者、居民和汽车交通的噪音一直是生活中的现实。
But she tells me the last few years have seen things escalate to a previously unknown intensity.
但她告诉我，过去几年事情已经升级到了前所未有的强度。
‘Oh it’s worse.
‘噢，更糟了。
The glass smashing on the street in the early hours.
凌晨，街上的玻璃碎裂了。
The pissed people getting into fights…
愤怒的人们开始打架……
it feels like things are declining in front of our eyes.’
感觉事情就在我们眼前衰落了。”
Soho’s residential population has long been drifting into apparently terminal decline.
苏豪区的居住人口长期以来一直处于明显的最终下降状态。
In 1881, it stood at 16,608.
1881 年，这一数字为 16,608。
The most recent census has it down at around 2,600.
最近的人口普查显示该数字下降至 2,600 人左右。
It’s easy to assume that anyone who would complain about the area’s noise while choosing to live in the neighbourhood must be an entitled blow-in.
人们很容易认为，任何在选择住在附近的同时抱怨该地区噪音的人一定是一个有权利闯入的人。
This does not bear scrutiny.
这经不起推敲。
Of those who remain, a substantial number are, like Beverly Elie, long-term social housing tenants, rather than recalcitrant millionaires.
在那些留下来的人中，有相当多的人像贝弗利·埃利一样是社会住房的长期租户，而不是顽固的百万富翁。
Okay, runs the counterargument I heard from landlords and several business owners, but surely it came down to individual agency.
好吧，这是我从房东和几位企业主那里听到的反驳，但这肯定归结于个人机构。
Bluntly, if they didn’t like it, couldn’t they just leave?
说白了，如果他们不喜欢，就不能走吗？
‘They must be off their rocker’, was one of the politer rejoiners Elie offered.
“他们一定是疯了。”埃利礼貌地回答道。
‘Where do they think I’m likely to be sent, Inverness?’
“他们认为我可能会被送到哪里，因弗内斯？”
Over this year, I spoke with a wide selection of Soho residents, past and present, a diverse constituency of council and private tenants and middle-class, occasionally very wealthy homeowners, young, old and middle-aged.
今年，我与众多苏豪区过去和现在的居民进行了交谈，他们包括议会和私人租户以及中产阶级，有时甚至是非常富有的房主，包括年轻人、老年人和中年人。
One lifelong resident, who didn’t want to be named on account of tiresome potential blowback, told me that the talk of the neighbourhood being sustained as a ‘world-class destination’ was all well and good, but it didn’t quite speak to the reality of rising crime and the ‘maximised churn’ of the hospitality industry.
一位因潜在的令人厌烦的反弹而不愿透露姓名的终身居民告诉我，有关该社区将继续成为“世界级目的地”的言论固然很好，但这并不能完全说明犯罪率上升和酒店业“流失率最大化”的现实。
‘World-class what?’, they’d asked me rhetorically.
“什么是世界级？”他们反问我。
‘World class shit?’
“世界级的狗屎？”
Others were more circumspect.
其他人则更加谨慎。
Lucy Haine bought her flat in 1998.
露西·海恩 (Lucy Haine) 于 1998 年买下了她的公寓。
The civil servant concurs on crime and noise pollution.
公务员同意犯罪和噪音污染问题。
She did not take a particularly kind view of John James or Soho Estates.
她对约翰·詹姆斯或苏荷庄园并没有特别友善的看法。
‘It’s not about [caring] for the area.
“这与[关心]该地区无关。
It’s about [their] rent.’ At least with Shaftesbury – which has hundreds of holdings across the West End – some constructive dialogue has been possible.
这是关于[他们的]租金。”至少与沙夫茨伯里——该公司在西区拥有数百处房产——一些建设性的对话是可能的。
‘I probably sound like a real moaner.
“我听起来可能像个真正的抱怨者。
But people are going to ask what we’ve lost [the identity] for.
但人们会问我们为什么失去[身份]。
So Soho Estates can make another billion pounds profit?
那么Soho Estates还能再赚取10亿英镑的利润吗？
Meanwhile Soho becomes another faceless, soulless place.’
与此同时，苏荷区变成了另一个没有面孔、没有灵魂的地方。
At the same time, a chorus of frustration has swelled from local hospitality businesses and commercial landlords, rankled by what they characterise as a tiny group of obstructive, highly politicised residents, backed up by an enfeebled Westminster Council who accommodate their demands at the expense of Soho’s economic health.
与此同时，当地的酒店企业和商业业主也纷纷表示不满，他们认为这是一小群具有阻碍性、高度政治化的居民，他们的支持是虚弱的威斯敏斯特议会的支持，他们以牺牲苏豪区的经济健康为代价来满足他们的要求。
‘We have what they call a stakeholder interest,’ explained James, the avuncular 71-year-old managing director of Soho Estates (West End property portfolio: £1 billion) when we met in his top floor Manette Street office on a dank autumn morning.
“我们有他们所谓的利益相关者利益，”詹姆斯解释道。在一个潮湿的秋日早晨，我们在他位于马内特街顶层的办公室里会面时，这位 71 岁的 Soho Estates（伦敦西区房地产投资组合：10 亿英镑）的董事总经理表现出慈祥的态度。
‘I will clearly tell you that I have never been asked to meet the leader of Westminster Council…
“我会明确地告诉你，我从未被要求会见威斯敏斯特议会的领导人......
[so] when they say ‘we are consulting with business’, you wonder who and where.’ The question remains: who does Soho belong to?
[因此]当他们说“我们正在与企业进行咨询”时，你会想知道是谁、在哪里。”问题依然存在：Soho 属于谁？
Ask detractors, and they may point you toward the Soho Society.
询问批评者，他们可能会将你引向 Soho Society。
The group has its roots in the early 1970s, when a coalition of local residents banded together to safeguard the area against mass demolition.
该组织起源于 20 世纪 70 年代初，当时当地居民组成的联盟联合起来保护该地区免遭大规模拆迁。
It was fundamental in both the extension of the Soho Conservation Area and creation of the Soho Housing Association, which endures to this day.
这对 Soho 保护区的扩建和 Soho 住房协会的创建至关重要，该协会一直延续至今。
Today, the Soho Society spearheads campaigns, promotes local history, broadcasts a weekly radio show and even organises a yearly fête.
如今，苏荷协会带头开展活动，宣传当地历史，每周播放一次广播节目，甚至每年组织一次庆祝活动。
In short, they’re precisely the kind of usefully civic-minded busybody you’d want advocating for your own neighbourhood.
简而言之，他们正是那种有公民意识、爱管闲事的人，你会希望为自己的社区代言。
But perhaps most importantly, it retains a formal consultative role with Westminster Council regarding any new licensing and planning applications in the area.
但也许最重要的是，它保留了威斯敏斯特议会就该地区任何新的许可和规划申请的正式咨询作用。
On this reading, it is this cluster of residents who have stifled the area’s development.
由此看来，正是这群居民阻碍了该地区的发展。
Their alleged interventions are numerous: Pride events refused temporary licences; the basement jazz club blocked on the basis of potential noise; a battle to recognise the Dean Street Tesco Express as an ‘asset of community value’.
他们被指控的干预行为有很多：骄傲活动拒绝获得临时许可证；地下室爵士乐俱乐部因潜在噪音而被封锁；一场将 Dean Street Tesco Express 认定为“社区价值资产”的斗争。
If the supermarket lacks aesthetic merit or special interest to tourists, it is undeniably useful if you live locally and are running low on bog roll and milk.
如果超市缺乏审美价值或对游客特别感兴趣，那么如果你住在当地并且沼泽卷和牛奶短缺，那么它无疑是有用的。
Perhaps most damning of all, their opponents say, is their dogged opposition to outdoor dining and hospitality across the area.
他们的反对者说，也许最可恶的是他们顽固地反对整个地区的户外用餐和热情好客。
Back in the summer of 2020, there was tacit agreement between residents, business and commercial stakeholders that action needed to be taken to save Soho’s hospitality industry.
早在 2020 年夏天，居民、企业和商业利益相关者之间就达成了默契，认为需要采取行动拯救 Soho 的酒店业。
Between July 2020 and the end of September 2021, restaurants set out outside tables and chairs in freshly pedestrianised roads across the neighbourhood.
2020 年 7 月至 2021 年 9 月底，餐馆在附近新建的步行道上摆出了桌椅。
It was a resounding success, at least from a business perspective, with 100 table and chairs licences granted and 14 streets closed until 11pm, seven days a week.
至少从商业角度来看，这是一次巨大的成功，发放了 100 张桌椅许可证，14 条街道每周 7 天关闭至晚上 11 点。
Residents, who had to deal with the associated noise and chaos, did not share in the spoils.
居民们不得不应对随之而来的噪音和混乱，但他们并没有分享战利品。
The scheme eventually ended despite similar arrangements persisting in other pockets of central London, including nearby Covent Garden.
尽管类似的安排在伦敦市中心的其他地区（包括附近的考文特花园）持续存在，但该计划最终还是结束了。
The Conservative-led Westminster Council began drafting a longer-term plan, entitled ‘Vision for Soho’, with permanent alfresco a key component.
保守党领导的威斯敏斯特议会开始起草一项名为“Soho 愿景”的长期计划，其中永久露天是一个关键组成部分。
These plans were quietly paused, then effectively scrapped in 2022, as the council was captured by Labour for the first time in its history; a political upset driven, some contend, by Labour’s pandering to the residents’ anti-alfresco demands.
这些计划被悄悄暂停，然后在 2022 年实际上被废除，因为该委员会历史上首次被工党夺取；一些人认为，这是由于工党迎合居民反露天要求而引发的政治动荡。
Many of the residents I spoke with refute this characterisation.
与我交谈的许多居民都反驳了这种描述。
For some, the spurious charge was evidence that their sincere concerns had ceased to matter at all; that their continued existence was an irritant to both the council and the area’s commercial interests, who would much rather transform the area into a booze-soaked chain-pub bacchanalia.
对于一些人来说，虚假指控证明他们的真诚担忧根本不再重要。他们的继续存在对议会和该地区的商业利益都是一种刺激，他们宁愿把该地区变成一个酗酒的连锁酒吧。
There was one man I urgently needed to speak with.
我迫切需要与一个人交谈。
Tim Lord is the society’s current chair, a position he has held since the summer of 2018.
蒂姆·罗德 (Tim Lord) 是该协会的现任主席，他自 2018 年夏季以来一直担任该职务。
The 59-year-old lawyer moved to Soho in the summer of 1991.
这位 59 岁的律师于 1991 年夏天搬到了 Soho。
Like many, Lord had fallen in love with the area’s inclusiveness and sense of possibility.
和许多人一样，洛德爱上了该地区的包容性和可能性。
‘It was a great place to live.
“那是一个居住的好地方。
I’m a gay man.
我是一个同性恋者。
For a lot of us from a similar generation, you’ll hear the same thing: that it was the first place they felt accepted, and safe.’
对于我们许多来自同一代人的人来说，你会听到同样的事情：这是他们感到被接受和安全的第一个地方。
Lord holds strident opinions and has been known to communicate them with a force some argue can tip into hectoring.
洛德持有尖锐的观点，而且众所周知，他的表达方式具有某种力量，有些人认为这可能会导致恐吓。
The idea, he says, that the Society exercises a sinister hold over the council is laughable, even if he concedes that the conversation around alfresco had become pronouncedly toxic.
他说，即使他承认围绕露天的谈话已经变得明显有毒，但协会对理事会行使邪恶控制的想法是可笑的。
The Soho Society did not claim to speak for everyone in the neighbour­hood indeed there were plenty of residents who did not share their campaigning zeal, who were only dimly aware of their activities, if at all.
苏荷协会并没有声称代表社区中的每个人，事实上，有很多居民没有分享他们的竞选热情，他们只是模糊地意识到他们的活动，如果有的话。
For some businesses and several commercial landlords, Lord has become something of a bogeyman: a supercharged NIMBY obstructionist, hellbent on opposing any new development that runs afoul of the Soho Society’s tastes.
对于一些企业和一些商业房东来说，洛德已经成为了某种怪物：一个超级邻避阻挠者，坚决反对任何与苏豪区品味相冲突的新开发项目。
Which is, his critics allege, all of them.
他的批评者声称，这就是所有这些。
James told me that, since 2022, the Soho Society had reviewed 102 planning applications and taken issue with 101 of them (Lord offered a very different stat from 2023, which had them opposing 78 of 348 applications.
James 告诉我，自 2022 年以来，Soho Society 已审查了 102 份规划申请，并对其中 101 份提出了异议（洛德提供了与 2023 年截然不同的统计数据，他们反对了 348 份申请中的 78 份。
Since July, they had reviewed 127, objecting to only 18).
自 7 月以来，他们已审查了 127 项，仅反对 18 项）。
I met with Lord several times over the course of reporting, and our discussions were always productive and amiable.
在报道过程中我与洛德见过几次面，我们的讨论总是富有成效且和蔼可亲。
The caricature of a bristling and myopic parish councillor did not fit with the self-aware, humorous man in front of me.
漫画中描绘的一位怒气冲冲、目光短浅的教区议员与我面前这个有自我意识、幽默的人并不相符。
Though it was true, he told me during one of our early meetings, that there must be some in the Westminster Council licensing department who likely considered him a flagrant pain in the arse.
尽管这是事实，但他在我们的一次早期会议上告诉我，威斯敏斯特议会许可部门肯定有人认为他是公然的讨厌鬼。
Lord’s stance can be summed up as follows: the idea that Soho’s nightlife is declining is not supported by factual evidence.
洛德的立场可以概括为：Soho夜生活正在减少的观点没有事实证据支持。
Of its 491 licensed premises, 121 have late-night licences with closing hours ranging between 1am and 6am, with a cumulative capacity of almost 23,000.
在其 491 个有执照的场所中，有 121 个拥有深夜执照，关门时间为凌晨 1 点至 6 点，累计容量近 23,000 人。
Between 2020 and 2023, an additional 51 new alcohol licences were granted, raising this capacity by several thousand.
2020 年至 2023 年间，新增了 51 个酒类许可证，使产能增加了数千个。
One of the Soho Society’s roles is to scrutinise applications for their potential impact on residents, as well as the area’s general character.
Soho Society 的职责之一是审查申请对居民的潜在影响以及该地区的总体特征。
Talk of the area’s general decline as a tourist destination is, he says, nonsense.
他说，有关该地区作为旅游目的地的普遍衰落的说法纯属无稽之谈。
‘It is more mainstream.
‘这更主流。
Less transgressive…
越轨越少……
it’s much more popular.
它更受欢迎。
There was always drinking and entertainment in the area, but it wasn’t the only thing that was happening.’
该地区总是有饮酒和娱乐活动，但这并不是唯一发生的事情。
It’s a view echoed by Brian Clivaz, a minor legend of central London hospitality and long-time chairman of L’Escargot, the venerable French restaurant in the middle of Greek Street.
布赖恩·克利瓦兹 (Brian Clivaz) 也持同样的观点，他是伦敦市中心待客之道的小传奇人物，也是位于希腊街中心的久负盛名的法国餐厅 L’Escargot 的长期董事长。
‘Oh it’s mobbed,’ he breezily explained.
“哦，被围攻了，”他轻松地解释道。
‘Far more so than a decade ago’.
“比十年前要多得多”。
This change could partially be explained in terms of transport, with a day, or night, out in Soho now even more accessible on account of the Elizabeth line, finally opened for use in May 2022.
这种变化可以部分地用交通来解释，由于伊丽莎白线最终于 2022 年 5 月开通使用，现在无论白天还是晚上，在 Soho 外出都更加方便。
Soho was – is – unique, agrees Lord.
洛德同意，Soho 曾经是、现在是独一无二的。
Nowhere else in London could offer the same blend of hospitality, retail and culture.
伦敦其他地方都无法提供如此融合的热情好客、零售和文化。
And no one was proposing to transform the area into a suburban idyll, a Penge-on-Piccadilly.
没有人提议将该地区改造成郊区田园诗般的“皮卡迪利河畔彭吉”。
But there had to be balance.
但必须保持平衡。
And until the alfresco debacle, things worked pretty well for the most part.
在露天灾难发生之前，大部分情况都进展顺利。
But something had since tipped badly out of whack.
但此后事情发生了严重的混乱。
Alfresco was just the first and best-publicised battleground.
露天只是第一个也是最广为人知的战场。
If James and others in the Soho Business Alliance wanted its return, it wasn’t due to any concern with preserving the neighbourhood’s vaguely transgressive charm or its appeal to tourists, from London or elsewhere.
如果詹姆斯和苏荷商业联盟的其他人希望它回归，那并不是因为担心保留该街区隐约的越轨魅力或其对来自伦敦或其他地方的游客的吸引力。
It was just about maximising returns in the crudest way possible.
这只是以尽可能最原始的方式最大化回报。
As for nightlife, it used to be pretty simple.
至于夜生活，以前很简单。
Licensed venues – apart from a handful of nightclubs and late-night spots – would wind down around 11pm.
除了少数夜总会和深夜场所外，获得许可的场所将在晚上 11 点左右关闭。
This was no longer the case.
现在情况已不再如此。
‘At one AGM, an old woman who has lived in Soho for ages stood up and asked what happened to the protected hours.’
“在一次年度股东大会上，一位在苏荷区生活了多年的老妇人站起来询问受保护时间发生了什么。”
Lord sent me the results of a survey in which the majority of the respondents reported seriously disrupted sleep at least three or four nights a week, caused at least partially by ‘people drinking and shouting in the street’.
洛德给我发了一份调查结果，其中大多数受访者表示，每周至少有三到四个晚上睡眠受到严重干扰，这至少部分是由“人们在街上喝酒和喊叫”造成的。
It isn’t just about noise, Lord repeatedly stressed.
洛德反复强调，这不仅仅是噪音问题。
Figures published by Westminster Council earlier this year suggest that the borough now accounts for 9.2 per cent of all reported crime in London.
威斯敏斯特议会今年早些时候公布的数据显示，该行政区目前占伦敦所有报告犯罪案件的 9.2%。
This is particularly acute in Soho, he says.
他说，这种情况在苏荷区尤其严重。
‘The number of people coming [to Soho] now has attracted organised criminals who prey on these visitors.’ Thefts and sexual assaults are on the rise, with an overstretched police force rendered almost irrelevant.
“现在来到[Soho]的人数吸引了有组织的犯罪分子，他们对这些游客进行掠夺。”盗窃和性侵犯不断增加，而过度紧张的警察力量几乎变得无关紧要。
In May 2023, two off-duty police officers were stabbed on Greek Street, a particular crime hotspot.
2023 年 5 月，两名下班警察在犯罪热点希腊街被刺伤。
It was suggested to me by several people I spoke with that this might have contributed a reluctance to patrol the neighbourhood.
与我交谈的几个人向我表示，这可能导致人们不愿意在附近巡逻。
‘I have some sympathy with the police,’ said Clivaz.
“我对警察有些同情，”克里瓦兹说。
‘They don’t have the resources and the West End is a very big area.’ Any increase in late-night licences would only exacerbate an already fairly dire problem, says Lord.
“他们没有资源，而且西区面积非常大。”洛德说，深夜许可证的任何增加只会加剧本已相当严重的问题。
The council’s own recent cumulative impact report seems to agree, concluding that reported incidents, particularly theft, ‘feature prominently in areas with a high concentration of licensed premises’ and that any proliferation of additional licences would only lead to a further increase in crime.
该委员会最近的累积影响报告似乎也同意这一观点，该报告得出的结论是，报告的事件，特别是盗窃事件，“在有执照的场所高度集中的地区尤为突出”，任何额外许可证的扩散只会导致犯罪进一步增加。
One couldn’t really blame the businesses in question for wanting to open later and longer, in an attempt to cope with years of rent increases imposed by landlords, including Soho Estates.
人们不能真正责怪这些企业想要推迟开业、延长开业时间，以应对包括 Soho Estates 在内的房东多年来强加的租金。
When I put this to James, his response was withering.
当我把这件事告诉詹姆斯时，他的反应很冷淡。
It just wasn’t that simple.
事情没那么简单。
The market sets the rent, the landlord merely adheres to it.
租金由市场决定，房东只需遵守。
‘It would be a retrogressive step to say this [should] become a low rent area…
“如果说这里[应该]成为低租金区域，那将是一种倒退……
it’s an improved area.
这是一个改进的领域。
Look out the window.
看看窗外。
It’s the middle of the city.’
这是城市的中心。
I’d first emailed James in hope rather than expectation, back in late September.
九月下旬，我第一次给詹姆斯发电子邮件时是抱着希望，而不是期待。
His response arrived within minutes.
他的回复在几分钟内就到达了。
Yes, he’d be happy to chat.
是的，他很乐意聊天。
In the meantime, I was to read his recently composed open letter on the future of Soho, which railed against the Soho Society and Westminster Council, whose stubbornness in planning and licensing matters was making them seem more like ‘a rural council…
与此同时，我读到了他最近撰写的关于 Soho 未来的公开信，信中对 Soho 协会和威斯敏斯特议会提出了批评，后者在规划和许可问题上的顽固让他们看起来更像是“一个乡村议会……”
[than] the most important local authority in the entire country’.
[比]全国最重要的地方当局”。
James’s biography is undeniably captivating.
詹姆斯的传记无疑是引人入胜的。
The native Cumbrian moved to London in the 70s to pursue a modelling career.
这位土生土长的坎布里亚人于 70 年代移居伦敦，追求模特生涯。
After a stint with Levi’s, among others, he became acquainted with the late Paul Raymond, legendary Soho porn-turned-property baron.
在李维斯 (Levi's) 等公司工作一段时间后，他结识了已故的保罗·雷蒙德 (Paul Raymond)，后者是苏荷区传奇人物，从色情片转型为房地产大亨。
Some years later, James married Paul’s daughter, Debbie, with whom he has two daughters.
几年后，詹姆斯与保罗的女儿黛比结婚，并育有两个女儿。
From reasonably humble beginnings, Soho Estates now preside over a portfolio of West End property bars and restaurants, grand office spaces and residential accommodation.
Soho Estates 起步相当简陋，如今管理着一系列西区酒吧和餐厅、宏伟的办公空间和住宅。
‘This is a privately run business.
“这是一家私营企业。
A family business, started by one man, my father-in-law, in 1958, God bless him,’ he offered as we spoke in his office.
这是一家家族企业，由我的岳父于 1958 年创办，愿上帝保佑他。”我们在他的办公室交谈时，他说道。
‘This family business will continue.
“这个家族企业将继续下去。
It is generational.
这是一代人的。
We are a professionally run inherited estate…
我们是一家专业经营的继承遗产......
and we have a respect for the historic nature [of the] area.’
我们尊重该地区的历史性质。”
James’s arguments are straightforward.
詹姆斯的论点很简单。
History, nostalgia, call it what you want, is all well and good.
历史、怀旧，随你怎么称呼，都很好。
But times are changing whether one likes it or not.
但无论人们喜欢与否，时代都在变化。
‘If you don’t accommodate that change then business will go somewhere else.’ With every high street in the country struggling, why would Soho be any different?
“如果你不适应这种变化，那么生意就会转移到其他地方。”在全国每条商业街都陷入困境的情况下，Soho 为何会有所不同呢？
And if the area retained its vibrancy, it was in spite of the restrictions and roadblocks put up by a tiny group of residents – and a council in their thrall.
如果说这个地区仍然保持着活力的话，那也是尽管有一小群居民设置的限制和路障——以及一个受他们控制的议会。
‘Anyone else would like to take Soho’s magic and put it in Shoreditch, or Hoxton, or Brixton.’ Businesses struggled to get a fair hearing from the council, he suggested.
“其他人都想把苏荷区的魔力带到肖尔迪奇、霍克斯顿或布里克斯顿。”他表示，企业很难从议会获得公平的听证会。
As for the Soho Society, the less said the better.
至于苏荷社，还是少说为好。
There was, I thought, a fairly heavy irony in Paul Raymond’s son-in-law being one of the key figures in Soho’s sanitisation.
我认为，保罗·雷蒙德的女婿是苏豪区消毒工作的关键人物之一，这具有相当大的讽刺意义。
It was also slightly comical to hear one of central London’s most powerful and influential commercial landlords complain about the prissiness of a local authority long criticised as being riddled with conflicts of interest and an exceptionally cosy relationship to property developers (in 2022, Jacobin labelled it the ‘sordid epicentre’ of local authority corruption in the UK).
听到伦敦市中心最有权势和影响力的商业房东之一抱怨地方当局的拘谨，这也有点滑稽，长期以来，地方当局被批评充满了利益冲突，而且与房地产开发商的关系异常融洽（2022年，雅各宾将其称为英国地方当局腐败的“肮脏中心”）。
It is difficult to know exactly what Westminster Council thinks about this characterisation – or the opposite charge of being obstructive to business – as they did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
很难确切知道威斯敏斯特议会对这种描述有何看法——或者相反的阻碍商业的指控——因为他们没有回应多次置评请求。
People like harking back to a golden age, James reflected.
詹姆斯反映，人们喜欢回顾黄金时代。
When I Camisa & Son, a beloved Italian deli on Old Compton Street with its roots in the late 1920s, whose building was owned by Shaftesbury, shuttered in August, it provoked a wave of local grief and hand-wringing.
I Camisa & Son 是位于老康普顿街 (Old Compton Street) 的一家深受喜爱的意大利熟食店，其历史可追溯到 1920 年代末，其建筑归沙夫茨伯里 (Shaftesbury) 所有，该熟食店于 8 月关闭，引发了当地人的悲痛和绝望。
But James told me that Mr Camisa had sold out to Alvini, an Italian food and wine importer, years ago, while the property’s freehold passed to Shaftesbury Capital.
但詹姆斯告诉我，卡米萨先生几年前就卖给了意大利食品和葡萄酒进口商阿尔维尼(Alvini)，而该地产的永久业权则转移给了沙夫茨伯里资本公司(Shaftesbury Capital)。
‘The world of business will move on and adjust to what the world of business requires,’ was his stark take on matters.
“商业世界将继续前进，并根据商业世界的需求进行调整，”他对此事的态度是鲜明的。
After our meeting drew to a close, James pointed out the window, down to the rain-slicked streets we’d spent the hour pontificating over.
我们的会议结束后，詹姆斯指着窗外，指着我们花了一个小时高谈阔论的被雨水打湿的街道。
I couldn’t help thinking how grey and small things looked from such an exalted vantage point.
我情不自禁地想，从如此崇高的角度看去，灰色的小东西会是什么样子。
During the end of my last conversation with Lord, he sounded unusually downbeat.
在我与洛德的最后一次谈话结束时，他听起来异常悲观。
The fight over the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, yet another staunchly contested local issue – had taken a negative turn.
关于牛津街步行街的争论是另一个激烈争议的当地问题，但现在已经出现了消极的转变。
After another bitter, years-long struggle, Labour-run City Hall had overruled Labour-controlled Westminster Council to ramrod the plans through.
经过另一场长达数年的艰苦斗争，工党控制的市政厅否决了工党控制的威斯敏斯特议会，强行通过了该计划。
Lord told me he just didn’t know if the continued existence of Soho’s residential community was possible, the way things were trending.
洛德告诉我，他只是不知道苏豪区的住宅社区是否有可能继续存在，按照事情的发展趋势。
‘And if that’s [the aim] it would be better if it was communicated honestly.’
“如果这就是[目标]，那么诚实地传达会更好。”
On a balmy Thursday evening in early September, I left my home in south-east London and caught the train to Charing Cross.
九月初一个温暖的星期四晚上，我离开伦敦东南部的家，乘火车前往查林十字街。
I’d made plans to meet a friend for a drink and we’d finally agreed on the French House, a storied haunt on Dean Street.
我计划和朋友一起喝一杯，最后我们同意去法国之家，这是迪恩街的一个传奇人物。
On arrival, the pub was packed with a good-natured, reasonably giddy late-week professional crowd.
抵达后，酒吧里挤满了心地善良、周末相当兴奋的专业人士。
It was long after ten by the time I said my goodbyes and headed back out into the nighttime crush.
当我告别并回到夜晚的喧嚣中时，已经十点多了。
Rickshaws in various shades of fluorescent pink cruised past, bearing naive or just catatonically pissed tourists.
各种荧光粉红色的人力车驶过，载着天真或只是惊慌失措的游客。
Post-theatre punters spilled out of the theatres, to mingle with the spirited dregs of the post-work crowd on the narrow streets.
下班后的观众纷纷涌出剧院，与狭窄街道上下班后精神抖擞的人群混在一起。
On Greek Street, I walked past a couple of comically open-air drug deals and a young couple having a screaming row about the size of their dinner bill.
在希腊街上，我走过几处滑稽的露天毒品交易场所，一对年轻夫妇正在为晚餐账单的金额大吵大闹。
A pile of fresh sick lay proudly splattered outside the entrance to Tottenham Court Road tube.
一堆新鲜的病人骄傲地散落在托特纳姆法院路地铁入口外。
I tried to recall if it felt busier, or more unsafe, than any other night I’d spent in the neighbourhood over the years, or if I was suffering from a bout of lager induced Baader-Meinhof.
我试图回忆一下，是否感觉比我多年来在附近度过的任何其他夜晚都更忙碌或更不安全，或者我是否正在遭受一场啤酒引起的巴德尔-迈因霍夫（Baader-Meinhof）的折磨。
That I was simply seeing the chaos I wanted to see, to reinforce my sympathy with Lord and the put-upon residents.
我只是看到了我想看到的混乱，以加强我对上帝和被欺骗的居民的同情。
On leaving the densely packed streets, this sympathy was trumped by relief at returning to quieter, saner air.
当离开拥挤的街道时，这种同情心被回到更安静、更清醒的空气中的解脱所压倒。
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