Cecil Court is a narrow pedestrian street connecting Charing Cross Road and Saint Martin’s Lane, easily identified by its uniform, late-nineteenth-century shopfronts and rows of independent, antiquarian bookshops. Laid out in the late…
Covent Garden and Seven Dials
This walking tour guides you through historic pedestrian passages, the iconic market piazza, and the colorful courtyards of London's premier theater district.
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1. Cecil Court
2. Goodwin’s Court
Goodwin’s Court is a narrow, sixty-foot-long passage connecting St. Martin’s Lane and Bedfordbury. You can identify it by the row of early eighteenth-century houses on its southern side, which feature distinctive bow-fronted shop windows,…
3. St Paul’s Church Covent Garden
St Paul’s Church is instantly recognizable by the massive, stone-columned portico that stands at the edge of the Covent Garden piazza. Built between sixteen thirty-one and sixteen thirty-three, it was the first entirely new church…
4. Covent Garden Market
The Covent Garden Market building is defined by its neoclassical design and a series of wrought-iron arches that support a glass roof. You can identify the structure by its distinctive stone columns and the open-air piazza that surrounds…
5. Royal Ballet and Opera
The Royal Ballet and Opera is distinguished by its grand classical portico facing Bow Street. This building is the third theatre to occupy this specific site since seventeen thirty-two, as its two predecessors were both destroyed by fire.…
6. Seven Dials
A tall, slender stone column topped with six sundial faces stands at the center of the junction where seven streets converge. This monument is the namesake and focal point of the area, originally designed in sixteen ninety-three by…
7. Neal’s Yard (Courtyard)
Neal’s Yard is a small, vibrant courtyard tucked away in Covent Garden, identifiable by the brightly painted, multi-colored facades of the buildings surrounding it. Although it bears the name of the seventeenth-century property developer…