Travel bucket list idea:
Covent Garden
London, United Kingdom (UK)
Credit: Petr Kovalenkov / Shutterstock.com
Last updated: 10 March, 2024
Covent Garden piazza is one of London’s best-loved tourist draws; a quaint old apple market, built in 1830, and converted in 1980 into a hubbub of street performers, cafes, bars and restaurants. The central covered quarter is home to the daily market; on Mondays it’s an antique-hunters heaven, while Tuesday to Sunday sees stalls selling everything from hand-made jewellery to bespoke waistcoats, one-off clocks and hand-dyed scarves.
The two sub-ground terraces are home to two of London’s favourite watering holes, the Crusting Pipe, where buskers play classical music for the gathered drinkers, and the Punch & Judy, which also has a terrace overlooking the main piazza.
In culture and literature, this cobbled square is inextricably linked with the story Pygmalion and its musical adaptation My Fair Lady. Many come to Covent Garden piazza purely for its atmosphere, created by buskers, jugglers and other street performers – if you want London at its most vibrant, this is the place to come.
Logistics
Price: Free
Minimum age: 0
Age suitable: 4+
When: All year around
Getting there & doing it
The nearest tube stations are Covent Garden (Piccadilly Line) and Charing Cross (Bakerloo, Northern), with Leicester Square (Northern, Piccadilly) also nearby. Covent Garden itself gets very crowded, so exiting the tube at Charing Cross or Leicester Square is less stressful.
Leave half an hour or so to wander the piazza, and consider having lunch around here – the atmosphere is lovely and there are a lot of historic or unique London restaurants in the surrounding streets.
When to do it
Covent Garden is busy at any time of year, so expect a few crowds – but sunny days at best when the famous street performers turn up. It ’s hugely atmospheric in December, when the festive lights and garlands are strung around the Apple Market, and an enormous, beautifully-decorated Christmas tree is erected.
