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Photo taken from one of the floats in the parade.
©John Brightley
Series of six pictures, number 3
©tristan forward
At the junction with Mercer Street. Formerly the Soho Baptist Church
©R Sones
©Basher Eyre
Series of six pictures, number 6
©tristan forward
Series of six pictures, number 5
©tristan forward
Series of six pictures, number 4
©tristan forward
A thin sliver of the bright lights of the Cavendish Theatre is just visible above the No Entry sign in the centre of the picture. They are reflected in the glazing of Mercer Street (right) and those reflections are themselves reflected in the window alongside us. See also [[1664125]] for the theatre frontage itself.
©Chris Downer
Series of six pictures, number 2
©tristan forward
©Basher Eyre
This tiny court is on the south side of Earlham St. The name Portwine at the top of the building refers to a butchers shop that once occupied the site. It had been there since 1790 and only closed in 2003. The owner Graham Portwine who retired because of ill health wrote: "I've worked here full time 30 years - as a spotty youth I used to come up holidays, weekends, when I wasn't at school, and I eased my way into it like that. There was never any pressure put on me by my dad to come into the business, despite its longevity and the tradition - that was him exactly, a lovely bloke. He was the sort that never felt he could retire, but he became unwell and health basically retired him. The location of the shop is something - I don't think I would've got the same job satisfaction if the shop had been in a different place. I don't think I would've enjoyed it as much elsewhere. We've got some fantastic customers, terribly interesting types, all sorts, and they've made it interesting for me. That is the buzz of any job, interacting with fascinating people. The earliest butcher Portwine I've found was in 1760. This building was built in the mid 1700s. I don't think we were the first people in this building - our original shop was at the back of the Two Brewers pub down the alleyway, so I was told - so although our name's in the mortar at the top, that could've been added later, but we've been here probably 200 years plus, on this site alone. I'd love to get a time capsule and go back to see how it used to be. I had a look in St Giles in the Fields at the births, marriages and deaths. We got back fairly easily to the early 1800s and then it gets a little more spread. Apparently around here was Huguenot - we're a Huguenot derived name - and, according to a builder we had doing some renovations, who'd done work at Spitalfields, the wooden nails and pins of the roof suggest it's a Huguenot building. It was quite a centre for butchers and the like, the Seven Dials area - along with the vagabonds and the cut-throats."
©Nigel Mykura
The Twelfth Night has passed but these festive lights still illuminate Earlham Street – perhaps the snow last week thwarted the operation to take them down.
©Chris Downer
©Nigel Chadwick
Photographed in six sections, number one
©tristan forward
The quiet end, most of the theatres being further down the road.
©Rich Tea

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