Soho

Soho is the London district where Edward Hyde keeps a secret residence, a place that stands in stark contrast to the respectable world of Henry Jekyll and serves as a physical manifestation of Hyde's moral and social degradation. The district is first introduced when Hyde, after his initial confrontation with Mr. Utterson, gives the lawyer his address: a number on a street in Soho. This address becomes the focus of the police investigation following the murder of Sir Danvers Carew, and it is here that the full squalor of Hyde's hidden life is exposed.

Appearance and Atmosphere

When Mr. Utterson and Inspector Newcomen travel to Soho on the morning after the murder, the district is revealed under a shifting, nightmare-like fog. The cab crawls through a dismal quarter with muddy ways and slatternly passengers, its lamps either never extinguished or kindled afresh to combat a mournful reinvasion of darkness. To the lawyer's eyes, the scene seems like a district of some city in a nightmare. The specific street where Hyde lives is dingy, featuring a gin palace, a low French eating house, a shop for penny numbers and twopenny salads, ragged children huddled in doorways, and women of many nationalities passing out for a morning glass. The fog, as brown as umber, periodically settles down to cut the viewer off from these blackguardly surroundings. This is the home of Henry Jekyll's favourite, a man who is heir to a quarter of a million sterling.

Hyde's Residence

Within this degraded quarter, Hyde has furnished only a couple of rooms, but these are done with luxury and good taste. The rooms contain a closet filled with wine, silver plate, elegant napery, a good picture on the wall (a gift from Jekyll, a connoisseur), and carpets of many plies and agreeable colour. However, after the murder, the rooms bear every mark of having been recently and hurriedly ransacked: clothes lie about the floor with pockets inside out, lock-fast drawers stand open, and a pile of grey ashes on the hearth suggests many papers have been burned. From these embers, the inspector disinters the butt end of a green cheque book, and the other half of the murder weapon, the heavy cane, is found behind the door. A visit to the bank reveals several thousand pounds lying to the murderer's credit.

Narrative Significance

Soho functions as the spatial embodiment of Hyde's nature, a stark counterpoint to the wealthy, comfortable square where Jekyll lives. It is the place where Jekyll, in his confession, admits he took and furnished a house, engaging a housekeeper he knew to be silent and unscrupulous, to serve as a base for his depraved alter ego. The district's squalor and moral decay mirror the evil that Hyde represents, making it a crucial geographical symbol in the novel's exploration of duality. The contrast between the two locations—Jekyll's respectable home and Hyde's Soho den—visually reinforces the divided self that is the story's central theme.