If we are lucky, and if we take care to protect it, Soho and Greek Street will stay beautiful, and delightfully shit, for a while longer. And so, at the turn of 1880s, Maude Stanley set in motion the demolition of the buildings already standing at 59 Greek Street and the raising of the new for her girls’ club.

We just want to be a friendly record company," Elton told Danny Holloway in New Musical Express (17 February 1973).Comedy fans will note the plaque over Zebrano’s marking it as the site of the Establishment Club from 1961, run by “only twin” Peter Cook.

While some of these sites are no longer exactly the same as they were in the late 1960s and early 70s, we welcome you to take a walking tour through the start of Elton’s career using the map and legend below. It celebrates these characteristics, picturing women (and dogs) who are unabashed, daring, and authentic. Choat, a tall guy in a Bowie shirt and chunky silver rings, took over the freehold of the 1847-born, Grade II-listed pub eight years ago when “London’s rudest landlord” Norman Balon retired after 63 years. It was one of those nights on Greek Street – possibly the last great, lovably ‘shit’ street in Soho – and life was indeed beautiful. But she found a warm welcome: “That first summer there was this torrential rainfall and everyone got flooded, and we shared each other’s pain and helped each other.The building has been a hostel for a long time and was last used by Centrepoint to provide accommodation with 26 beds for homeless young people. Topics range from Manchester Cathedral’s stained glass to the long reign of Vitrolite, plus the IHBC North-West Branch conference and more. The basement was formerly used by the theatre girls as a rehearsal space, but all the floors above have been gutted for modernisation. There was a time when Britain’s labouring people had thought they could drag themselves out of their dire condition alone, that socialism would prevail, but that had turned out to be an empty hope; the establishment held the cards and, slowly, was dealing them out. The plot of land upon which 59 Greek Street stands has a history which long precedes its fame as a place for girls and women.

Its next-door neighbours, No 60 and No 58 had been standing since the early 1700s, built when Greek Street was a genteel place on the edge of London with nothing to the north but Soho Square, the road to Oxford, fields and a windmill.But as I went inside to get a bottle of wine I realised this wasn’t just some rammed Soho pub: everyone in there was singing Oasis around the piano: “Slip inside the eye of your mind / Don’t you know you might find / A better place to play?