Explore London
More sanitized and commercial than neighbouring Soho, the shops and restaurants of Covent Garden today are a far cry from the district’s heyday when the piazza was the great playground (and red-light district) of eighteenth-century London. The buskers in front of St Paul’s Church, the theatres round about, and the Royal Opera House on Bow Street are survivors of this tradition, and on a balmy summer evening, Covent Garden Piazza is still an undeniably lively place to be.
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Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The arcading on the northeast side of the piazza was rebuilt as part of the redevelopment of the Royal Opera House, whose main Neoclassical façade dates from 1811 and opens onto Bow Street. Now, however, you can reach the opera house from a passageway in the corner of the arcading. The spectacular wrought-iron Floral Hall serves as the opera house’s main foyer, and is open to the public, as is the Amphitheatre bar/restaurant (from 90min before performance to the end of the last interval), which has a glorious terrace overlooking the piazza.
