Admire the Gerrard Street lanterns

Chinese New Year arrives today, Friday 31st January, and whilst the main celebrations to mark the arrival of the year of the Horse are on Sunday, 2nd February the area around Chinatown - centred on Gerrard Street in Soho - is already festive with Chinese Lanterns hanging above the streets.

We are told that the area began its association with the Chinese community in the 1950s, when British soldiers who had returned from the Far East still had an appetite for Chinese cuisine, and some restaurateurs set up business in Gerrard Street among other international restaurants, rather than in the traditional Chinatown area in Limehouse. Today, the street has a marked Chinese feel, with signs, banks, restaurants, supermarkets and souvenir shops.

For more, see http://www.chinatownlondon.org/