The Soho Society was founded in 1972. Within a few months it was registered as a charity and had gained a formal consultative status with Westminster City Council on all planning, licensing, traffic and enviromental matters. In December 1973 the first edition of the Society's newsletter appeared with the headline 'Can Soho Survive?'.
The Society was established "to make Soho a better place in which to live, work or visit' and to thwart developers' plans for the comprehensive demolition and redevelopment of the entire area. Within a few months the Society has persuaded the City Council to make Soho a Conservation Area - thuss preventing wholesale demolition and the consquent loss of the existing residential and business communities.