the house in Soho

The house in Soho is the secret second home that Henry Jekyll establishes for his alter ego Edward Hyde, a deliberately chosen space of squalor and concealment that stands in stark opposition to the respectability of Jekyll's own residence in the square. It is the physical stage on which Hyde's unchecked depravity unfolds, and it becomes the site of his frantic flight after the murder of Sir Danvers Carew.

Location and Appearance

The house is situated in a dismal quarter of Soho, a district that, when glimpsed through the shifting fog of a London morning, strikes Mr. Utterson as "like a district of some city in a nightmare." The street itself 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 with keys in hand for a morning glass. The fog, brown as umber, periodically settles down to cut the observer 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.

Interior and Furnishings

Within the house, which is otherwise empty except for the old woman who serves as housekeeper, Hyde has only used a couple of rooms. These are furnished with luxury and good taste: a closet filled with wine, silver plate, elegant napery, a good picture on the wall (a gift from Jekyll, who is a connoisseur), and carpets of many plies and agreeable colour. The housekeeper is an ivory-faced and silvery-haired old woman with an evil face smoothed by hypocrisy but excellent manners. Jekyll, in his confession, states that he took and furnished the house in Soho and engaged as a housekeeper "a creature whom I knew well to be silent and unscrupulous."

Role in Hyde's Activities

The house serves as Hyde's base of operations and his refuge after his crimes. After the murder of Sir Danvers Carew, Hyde flees to the house in Soho, where he destroys his papers to make assurance doubly sure. When Utterson and Inspector Newcomen arrive the morning 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 on the hearth lies a pile of grey ashes as though many papers have been burned. From these embers the inspector disinters the butt end of a green cheque book that had resisted the fire, 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.

Jekyll's Continued Connection

Even after Jekyll resolves to abandon his double life, he does not give up the house in Soho. In his confession, he admits that he made his choice to return to the life of the elderly doctor "perhaps with some unconscious reservation, for I neither gave up the house in Soho, nor destroyed the clothes of Edward Hyde, which still lay ready in my cabinet." This retained connection proves fateful, as it provides a physical space for Hyde's continued existence and eventual return.

Narrative Significance

The house in Soho functions as a spatial embodiment of the duality at the heart of the novel. It is a place of luxury hidden within squalor, a secret dwelling that allows Jekyll to compartmentalize his life and indulge his darker impulses away from the scrutiny of his respectable circle. Its discovery by Utterson and the police marks the beginning of the unraveling of Jekyll's secret, and its continued existence, even after Jekyll's supposed reformation, demonstrates the ineradicable nature of the evil he has unleashed.