Covent Garden, Soho & Seven Dials

Description

Covent Garden, Soho & Chinatown

London has always had many faces. And nowhere do they coexist with such intensity as here — between Covent Garden and Chinatown, between Victorian lanes and flower markets, between gilded theatres and courtyards that nobody notices.

Cecil Court, nicknamed Flicker Alley — the silent cinema lane. Goodwin’s Court, frozen in the 18th century, its bow windows and gas lanterns straight out of a Dickens novel. Seven Dials, the seven-street crossroads designed to confuse — or to trap. Neal’s Yard, a hidden, colourful courtyard that only the curious find. And at the end of the road, Chinatown — a vibrant, noisy, fragrant enclave that reminds us London has always belonged to those who came to build it.

A walk for flâneurs, the curious and those who love hidden corners — people who know that the best stories always lurk in the lanes that others walk through without looking up.

Highlights

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Covent Garden
A former fruit and vegetable market now a top tourist destination, Covent Garden hides beneath its commercial gloss a colourful history of actors, pickpockets, flower girls, bawdy houses and street performers.

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Secret alleyways
Cecil Court, Goodwin’s Court, Neal’s Yard — passages that time seems to have forgotten. Victorian façades, bow windows and gas lamps tell of an authentic and astonishing London.

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Seven Dials
Designed in the 17th century as a chic neighbourhood, Seven Dials became one of London’s most notorious slums before its modern reinvention as a haven of independent boutiques and restaurants.

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Chinatown
An enclave of Chinese culture at the very heart of the West End, Chinatown is a reminder that London has always been a city built by immigrants and enriched by the world.