"My father took me to a pub in Berwick Street. Pickled herring, schmaltz herring and anchovies were available all day long, all the time, and you helped yourself."

"At Passover the upstairs bar of The Blue Posts in Berwick Street was turned into a Pesachdik bar so the Jewish clients could still come."

"My dad gave up tailoring and became a publican, as did all his brothers and sisters. My father's youngest brother Joe had The Coffee House in Beak Street, Sarah had The Two Ships and The Blue Posts in Newman Street, Sam had The Shaftesbury Tavern, and Dolly had The Yorkshire Grey in Charlotte Street. Being a publican was a hard life but easier than tailoring."

"My grandparents were born in Poland and had ten children, all daughters, of whom six survived. My grandfather knew he could not make enough money from tailoring to pay for all the weddings but it was the only trade he knew. His friends suggested he take over a public house and before he knew it he was the licensee of The Hercules Pillars, a very large pub on the corner of Greek Street and Manette Street. All their daughters were married from that pub and all lived in the area until the Second World War."

One of the best-known Jewish-run pubs in the West End was The Fitzroy Tavern, located in Windmill Street on the north side of Oxford Street. A meeting place for writers, artists, actors and politicians, it was also renowned for its charitable work on behalf of needy children. Funds collected on the tavern ceiling were used to take local children on outings to the country.

"My parents, Annie and Charles Allchild, and my mother's father Judah Kleinfeld before them, ran The Fitzroy Tavern from 1919 to 1956. Once Nina Hamnett, the artist, became a customer she attracted a bohemian crowd and the clientele grew - people from all walks of life, trades and religions."

"In spite of the rigours of pub life, my grandmother insisted on keeping a kosher home, with smells of her Shabbos cooking tantalising the customers."

The Second World War saw the beginning of the end of the thriving West End Jewish community, and the Jewish residential population drifted out to the suburbs.

"I remember just after the war people began to move out of the West End - to Highgate, Cricklewood, Golders Green. Most of the people who stayed in the West End had their businesses there."

By the mid 1990s, there remained a Jewish presence in the area, but more business than residential. Only a few still lived in Soho and Fitzrovia. Although the West London Synagogue has the largest synagogue membership, only about 100 of the 2,000 members actually live in the West End.

Taken from interviews compiled by the Jewish Museum London for the temporary exhibition: Living Up West: Jewish Life in London's West End, first shown in 1994. It is also available as a touring exhibition, and also an accompanying 332-page book written by Gerry Black. The full interviews and transcripts are available for consultation in the Oral History archive at the Jewish Museum, London. To find out more about the Jewish Museum, London visit www.jewishmuseum.org.uk.