Covent Garden

 Covent Garden and the Central Market

The Piazza
Covent Garden
LONDON WC2

This was originally known as "the Convent Garden", and was an area of green fields belonging to the monks at Westminster Abbey.  They grew their vegetables here. 

Covent Garden was built in 1630 by the architect Inigo Jones, and is an elegant square - or piazza - with several attractive buildings surrounding the square, like St Paul's Church (q.v.).  The fruit and vegetable market grew up here (made famous by "My Fair Lady" and Eliza Dolittle, but this moved to new premises at Nine Elms Battersea in 1980. 

The original buildings were transformed into one of Central London's liveliest areas of activity, with little shops in the old arcades, and lots of stalls with jewellery and objets d'art.  There is a delightful selection of cafes and restaurants here, and live musicians entertain the crowds - usually the musicians are busking music students from the Royal College of Music and the like,  and their standard is very good!

Left: Covent Garden from the Opera House - photo by Les Baker and reproduced with his kind permission

Don't miss seeing St. Pauls Church (see section on Churches and Cathedrals). Samuel Pepys watched the first ever Punch and Judy show being performed in the square outside the Church in 1662 and wrote about it in his famous Diary. 

Even today you can often catch the live performance of some specialist juggling or magic acts, and the performers are excellent value - it's great to be in a huge circle of onlookers cheering on the performer!

All around the piazza itself are a host of streets with fashionable clothes shops, bars, cafes, restaurants and gift shops. The stalls and stores around the Market offer superb variety from some of the UK's top designers, to natural beauty boutiques, and little traditional toy shops.

Left:  Musicians in the Piazza - photo by Les Baker and reproduced with his kind permission

 Covent Garden Piazza is also buzzing with life and activity at all hours of the day and night, with one of the most dense concentrations of pubs, bars, restaurants and wine bars in London.  Because mary of these are so close to the theatres of the West End they offer pre and post theatre menus, often a bargain.

Covent Garden is one of the most interesting and exciting areas in London for the tourist to visit.

Nearest Tube stations:  Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Holborn.

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