Covent Garden

During our last visit to London we went to the National Portrait Gallery where we spent a very pleasant morning exploring both the temporary exhibitions and the permanent exhibits. We then started exploring. We walked around Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and moved towards Covent Garden. I was not going to take any photographs as I am so behind with my blogging but then

we came across this very interesting little street, Cecil Court, and I started snapping as I wanted to remember this loveliness, hidden in the middle of London that I had not come across before. It's full of art galleries and interesting bookshops. A real treat.

One gallery in particular caught my attention as I liked most of the pictures in the window and inside as well. I was told by the assistant that most of them are Swedish, bought in Europe, artists unknown - like me, they liked the paintings and bought them. Because of this, the prices are very reasonable.

The bookshops here are also very interesting

This one sells predominantly books on witchcraft

and they have witches and wizzards in the window to reinforce the point

Another private gallery

Feeding the Birds by Lena Gurr

Open Shutters by Robert Louis Banks

As you can see here, Mozart stayed here for a while

The Art Deco Gallery has some fabulous things - unfortunately the owner did not want me to take any photographs

Another gallery and so it went on....

The next little street we explored was full of bars and restaurants

By now we were approaching Covent Garden central square.

As always here, street entertainment going on

The central square is simply called Covent Garden, often marketed as Covent Garden Piazza to distinguish it from the eponymous surrounding area. Designed and laid out in 1630, it was the first modern square in London - originally a flat, open space or piazza with low railings. From about 1635 onwards there were many private residents of note living in the Great Piazza. A casual market started on the south side, and by 1830 the present market hall had been built.  

The square was originally laid out when the 4th Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, commissioned Inigo Jones to design and build a  church and three terraces of fine houses around the site of a former walled garden belonging to Westminster Abbey. Jones' design was informed by his knowledge of modern town planning in Europe, particularly Piazza d'Arme, in Leghorn, Tuscany; Piazza San Marco in Venice; Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence; and the Place des Vosges in Paris. The centre piece of the project was the large square, the concept of which was new to London, and this had a significant influence on modern town planning as the metropolis grew, acting as the prototype for the design of new estates, such as the Ladbroke Estate and the Grosvenor Estate. 

Before entering the market itself, we had another look at the street entertainment which was happening in front of the church of St Paul. The church was the first building and was begun in July 1631. 

The church was damaged by fire in 1795. The columns are thought to be original but the rest is mostly Georgian or Victorian reconstruction.

It's always very crowded here, but we visited on a weekday and it was manageable

The stalls sells mostly crafty things

and there are lots of places to eat or to just have a drink.

The space is popular with street performers, who audition with the site's owners for allocated slots in a number of venues around the market, including the North Hall, West Piazza, the South Hall Courtyard. There are street performers every day of the year except Christmas day. Shows run throughout the day and are about 30 minutes in length.

Street entertainment at Covent Garden was noted in Samyel Pepy's diary in 1662, when he recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in Britain. Impromptu performances of song and swimming were given by local celebrity William Cussans in the 18th century.

We left the market briefly to have a look outside - it was a sunny day and lots of people were sitting out enjoying a drink and the sunshine

Back inside, we wandered around

looking at shop windows - slabs of chocolate in this case

looked down at the courtyard space which is full of eateries

and decided to have a look as by then we were looking for somewhere to have lunch.

The courtyard space is dedicated to classical music

quite often, opera.

We decided to move on and started walking down Henrietta Street

which is full of bars and eateries.

We chose Ave Mario

flamboyant decor and it was packed and booked out

because of this we were led to one of the back rooms

to one of the few free tables. The food was as flamboyant as the decor - very tasty and very rich.

Part of the decor was an abundance of crucifixes, which were everywhere

angels,

as well as other religious artefacts

and ... knickers

 

I discovered another dining room where the kitchen was also, when I went down to the basement to visit the toilet

which was another surprise

Indeed.

This is the toilet. Note the tube which is the water cistern.

After lunch we walked around for quite a while longer

Went in WA, a Japanese patisserie to have a look

Walked along The Strand, past Euston train station

past the Royal Society of Arts

the Savoy

such different styles, and yet there is symmetry in these two corner buildings

Somerset House

retraced our steps and arrived at Covent Garden again

another street performance

a living statue

who occasionally moves

and then, full circle, back to Trafalgar Square to get the bus who would take us to the train station. It was a good day.