London: Covent Garden and West End

Although we had been to Leicester Square to see the recent Mean Girls film the previous evening, I was keen to take Sylvia to the West End in daylight to see all the places that had been so magical to me.  Central to this was Covent Garden where the market used to be.  The West End is famous for theatre, shopping and history.

When I lived in London I knew the area well but I don't remember the streets as well over two decades later.  But I can still walk about with wonder around every corner.

Covent Garden, how do I love thee, let me count the ways.  I loved watching Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady as a Cockney flower girl at the market when it was a bustling market of workers.  On my first visit to London, I went to Cranks in this area.  It served the best ever vegetarian sausage rolls.  Nearby are laneways where I enjoyed great times.  I would have loved the time to walk around more than we did and see some favourite places like Neal's Yard and Bloomsbury.

But being around the market buildings was such a treat.  I have always been far more interested in the historic buildings than the shops.  The first time I saw it, I was transported into past worlds by the old buildings.  More recently we have seen films based there such as Last Christmas and A Street Cat Named Bob.  It is a place of great memories!

We took the underground to Covent Garden station.  (As an aside, I used to often accidentally call it Convent Garden when younger.  So I was interested to see on Wikipedia that it was originally referred to as the gardens of the Convent and [Westminster] Abbey as far back as 1200.  Though it also says that Covent is an Anglo-French word that refers to a religious community and is the name used from 1515.)

Sylvia was excited to visit Covent Garden because she was intent on buying a Billie Eilish perfume.  She had especially saved her pennies for that moment.  She had found it was available at Boots on Long Acre.  That was our first port of call. 

This colonnade around the market buildings are very elegant.

There are now markets and shops in the old market building.

I love the arches surrounding all that open space.

We saw a Moomin shop.  Of course we went in.

I would have loved to take spend time in the Moomin world.  They are so cute.  I had to make do with a busy shop where we could barely move and overpriced souvenirs.  I took away a Moomin dessert spoon that cost of £12.  Youch!  But it will bring back good memories every time I use it and it didn't take up much space in my luggage.

This photo shows that sort of bustle around Covent Garden market that I remember fondly.  Although there were probably times when I worked in London I was tired of all those crowds.

And I love an historic sign that reminds us of a time where the area was busy with not just people but also horses, trucks and barrows.

Sylvia took Chris to Blank Street Coffee.  They both appreciated it better than me, although when we had discovered one of their stores at Kings Cross station, I was very happy they had kombucha.  Sylvia tried the Chocolate Orange Mocha and raved about it.  That is some praise given she is not usually into chocolate and orange together.  Chris was happy to get a Americano.

It was then that we looked at our time and found we had to rush to have lunch at Ottolenghi's Nopi restaurant.  We hopped on a red double decker bus which drove us down the Strand, past Charing Cross Road station, past Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, St Martins in the Field and the British Gallery, into Waterloo Place and Pall Mall, through Piccadilly Circus, down Regent Street and past Hamleys Toy Store.  I can't believe we passed so many iconic places in a short bus ride! 

After dining at Nopi, we walked through SoHo from Warwick Street via Beak Street to another famous place: Carnaby Street.  (Like in the Taylor Swift song, or so Sylvia tells me!)

Carnaby Street today is a far cry from the swinging Sixties.  Many shops are big brand fashions.  Most of the people crowding the pedestrianised street are tourists.  Not a stylish Mods or a flower power Hippy to be seen these days.

Of course the history of Carnaby Street and SoHo goes back much further than the 60s.  The street dates back to the 1680s.  The photo above is of the Shakespeare's Head pub which is on the corner of Fouberts Place and Great Marlborough Street according to the street signs but seems to be at the top of Carnaby street.  The pub was built in 1735 when this end opened onto fields, and was originally owned by Thomas and John Shakespeare, distant relatives of the Bard.

Today the Shakespeare's Head is owned by a brewery, as are so many British pubs, and doing a roaring trade.  So it is more fun to look up to the Shakespeare on the sign and a life sized bust in the window watching the crowds.  Look closely and you will see that Shakespeare's bust is missing one hand, collateral damage from a nearby bombing in World War II.

For me history is more fun than beauty shops but that is not for everyone.  Both Chris and Sylvia seemed very familiar with pixi beauty brand, which I had never heard of.  They were excited to go in a make a purchase.  I was far more sympathetic to the guys hanging around outside the shop who looked like they were waiting for someone to come out of the shop.

I stood outside and took photos before finally going into the pixi shop to admire its gorgeous design.

Soon we arrived at Liberty Department Store on Great Marlborough Street.  At the door, Chris left us to catch her plane home.  Sylvia and I went inside.

The store is beautiful both inside and out, in keeping with the Liberty brand.  The fireplaces and wooden balconies and carvings.  (It reminds me a little of the former Jenners department store in Edinburgh.)

There is a room of the famous Liberty fabrics.  I purchased a Liberty handkerchief.

I would have loved some crockery which looked beautiful but wasn't cheap.  Isn't this green and purple kitchen display gorgeous?

After this we got a bus to Piccadilly Circus.  Sylvia decided to take the number 9 bus back to our hotel. 

I still had the energy and enthusiasm to walk around the West End a bit more.  I walked to Waterloo Place where I admired the statue of Florence Nightingale.

Then I walked down to St James Park on the Mall, with glimpses of Big Ben, London Eye and Buckingham Palace.  I was faced with a tyranny of choices: a walk through the park, a walk down Horse Guards Road and into Whitehall to see Downing Street, down to Buck House to see the Victoria Memorial where crowds have gathered on significant occasions or along the Mall to Trafalgar Square.  I chose the last and walked there past a scaffolded Admiralty Arch.  (Was it time for archway cleaning?  Marble Arch was also under scaffolds.)

This is St Martins in the Fields where I have visited for evensong and eaten in the cafe in the crypt but not attended their famous concerts.  It was getting late as you can see by the pink clouds in the photos.  If I had had time I would have gone inside and hung out in the galleries but it would be dark soon and I wanted to get back to my 14 year old daughter who had just travelled across London by herself in a bus!

Instead I just stood and looked around me and breathed in the iconic London that I knew long before I ever visited.

I didn't have time to go into the British Gallery where I used to love marvelling at the Medieval paintings or to wander around the nearby wonderful Portrait Gallery.  I would have loved to take a bus back to the hotel like Sylvia but my phone battery was running to low to navigate bus routes.  Too many photos!  Instead I headed to crowded underground, hoping there might at least be a poem among the adverts to gaze at during my journey while I kept enough battery to tap off at the London tube barriers at Kensington High Street.