Chinatown

Visitor information

Facts and information

Address:: Chinatown, Soho,
London
Buses:: 1 3 6 9 12 13 14 15 19 22 23 24 29 38 88 94 134 139 159 177 243 453
Trains:: Charing Cross BKL NRN, Covent Garden PCL, Leicester Square NRN PCL, Piccadilly Circus BKL PCL, Tottenham Court Road CNT NRN Note: The nearest train station to Chinatown is Leicester Square. We can help you find the best route from any other train station:
Train journey to Chinatown

^{Chinese Pagoda in Chinatown} View of London’s Chinatown lit up at night

^{Chinatown, London}

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> Got any questions? Or a review?

Chinatown centres around Gerrard Street, in the heart of London’s Soho. It is filled with red lanterns, dragons and Mandarin street signs.

It is particularly busy during the weekend, when the local Asian population flock to the shops to stock up on Chinese foodstuffs, not readily available elsewhere. And if you want a taste of China, its got the best Chinese restaurants in town.

Chinese New Year

The most colourful time to visit is during the Chinese New Year – at the end of January/early February. Huge papier-mâché dragons dance through the streets with fire-crackers banging on the pavement.

Edmund Burke – 37 Gerrard Street: “Author and statesman, lived here.”
John Dryden – 43 Gerrard Street: “Poet, lived here.”

>> Drummerboy’s blog – Chinatown

Drummerboy – “I reckon about 75% of the shops are restaurants, and the rest are either Chinese supermarkets, herbal remedy shops or travel agents offering one-way tickets back to Beijing. They’ve got a few fast-food joints but not like McDonalds. The Chinese version of Kentucky Fried Chicken has got the chickens hanging in the window, for all to see, all cooked and browned and suspended from the ceiling. The supermarkets don’t look like Sainsburys either. The ones I went into just had wooden pallets on the floor piled high with rice sacks as big as compost bags, and huge army-sized drums of cooking oil… continued.”

>> Write a review of Chinatown Read all reviews

Terrible 17%

Poor 0%

Okay 67%

Interesting 17%

Exceptional 0%

Athena – “Agreed there's not much to see. There is of course the gates before you come into China town, the pagoda at the end of the "town" where old chinese men gather to play poker. Plenty of good restaurants, too mention my favourites; Ikkyusan, Gerrard… read the full review”
mike – “They've got some fantastic restaurants in Chinatown. If you want a real authentic chinese meal then go to Mr Kong. its not too expensive for the middle of London and the menu is huge. they've got just about every chinese meal possible and i must have tried… read the full review”