SoHo

SoHo is a neighborhood in Manhattan that is bounded roughly by Houston Street on the north, the Bowery on the east, Canal Street on the south, and Sixth Avenue on the west.

The neighborhood rose to fame as a neighborhood for artists during the 1960s and 1970s, when the cheap spaces vacated by departing factories were converted by artists into lofts and studios. In a pattern that would become familiar throughout the city in subsequent decades, the neighborhood rapidly rose up the socioeconomic scale, leading eventually to an exodus of most actual artists that left only a residual film of galleries, boutiques, exclusive restaurants, and young urban professionals.

It is named SoHo because it is the area South of Houston Street, and in reference to the Soho area of London, England.

Nearby neighborhoods include:

• To the north: Greenwich Village and NoHo (there is some debate as to whether the latter is a real neighborhood)
• To the east: Little Italy, NoLIta, and the Lower East Side
• To the south: Chinatown