Soho is a district in many cities around the world, most commonly known is Soho London
(the oldest), Soho Manhattan
and Soho Hong Kong 
.
The name Soho has muddy origins; no one seems to know where the name Soho derives from: Soho London allegedly was a hunting cry; Soho Manhattan was perhaps short for ‘South of Houston’. However, they all seem to suffer the same fate. Most Sohos are gentrified and decorated with bars, clubs, restaurants and hipsters.
In seeing the pattern across these Soho(s), would it be possible to find the essence of Soho? A set of vocabulary was created by scanning through Wikipedia pages of each Soho, scraping its unique and common keywords. Just like how the Eiffel Tower ![]()
is a shared architectural concept by its derivatives, do these words create an imperfect blueprint/recipe for a Soho district?
Soho’s unclear naming origins also question the relationship between name and place. Does the naming of a place affect its purpose, use and physicality? In the world of real estate, strategic naming is not a foreign concept (such as the naming of East Williamsburg). ![]()
Like the saying, ‘dress for the job you want’, it seems as though toponyms have a similar kind of power—a power to establish what kind of place it would be.
The name Soho has muddy origins; no one seems to know where the name Soho derives from: Soho London allegedly was a hunting cry; Soho Manhattan was perhaps short for ‘South of Houston’. However, they all seem to suffer the same fate. Most Sohos are gentrified and decorated with bars, clubs, restaurants and hipsters.
In seeing the pattern across these Soho(s), would it be possible to find the essence of Soho? A set of vocabulary was created by scanning through Wikipedia pages of each Soho, scraping its unique and common keywords. Just like how the Eiffel Tower
Soho’s unclear naming origins also question the relationship between name and place. Does the naming of a place affect its purpose, use and physicality? In the world of real estate, strategic naming is not a foreign concept (such as the naming of East Williamsburg).
