Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
including University College London, one of
the main branches of the University of
London. Writers such as Virginia Woolf,
who lived in the area, have fanned the
neighborhood's reputation as a place
devoted to liberal thinking, arts, and “sex-
ual frankness.” However, Bloomsbury is a
now fairly staid neighborhood of neat gar-
den squares, with most of the students
actually living outside the area.
The heart of Bloomsbury is
Russell
Square,
where the outlying streets are lined
with moderately priced to expensive hotels
and B&Bs. It's a noisy but central place to
stay. Hotel prices have risen here in the past
decade but are still nowhere near the levels
of those in Mayfair and St. James's, and
there are still bargains to be found, particu-
larly on busy Gower Street. In general,
Bloomsbury's hotels are comparable in price
to what you'll find in Marylebone to the
west, but Bloomsbury is arguably more
convenient—at its southern doorstep lie the
restaurants and nightclubs of Soho, the
theatre district, and the markets of Covent
Garden. If you stay here, it's a 5-minute Tube
ride to the heart of the West End.
To the west across Tottenham Court
Road is
Fitzrovia,
a rather forgotten stretch
of the West End, somewhat overshadowed
by its more glamorous neighbors. To those
in the know it offers a welcome respite
from the crowds and madness along
Oxford Street, with many good shops and
pubs, particularly on Charlotte Street.
Covent Garden & the Strand
The flower,
fruit, and “veg” market is long gone (since
1970), but memories of Professor Higgins
and his “squashed cabbage leaf,” Eliza Doo-
little, linger on. Covent Garden contains the
city's busiest group of restaurants, pubs, and
cafes outside of Soho, as well as some of the
city's hippest shops, particularly along and
around Neal Street and Seven Dials. The
restored market buildings here represent
one of London's more successful examples
of urban recyling. The main building is now
home to a number of shops, as well as a
small arts and crafts market, while the for-
mer flower market holds the
London Trans-
port Museum
(p. 89).
The area attracts professional street
performers, who do their juggling and uni-
cycling on the piazza by
St. Paul's Church
(p. 111) in front of thronging crowds in sum-
mer—and just a few shivering souls in win-
ter. Appropriately enough, London's
theatre district starts around Covent Gar-
den and spills westward over to Leicester
Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Soho (see
below).
You'll probably come to the Covent Gar-
den area for the theatre or dining rather
than for a hotel room. There are only a few
hotels—although among those few are
some of London's smartest. We recom-
mend our favorites, beginning on p. 179.
Running east from Trafalgar Square,
parallel to the River Thames, the Strand
forms the southern border of Covent Gar-
den. Most of the grand mansions and fine
houses that once lined its length have—
with the honorable exceptions of
Somerset
House
(p. 88) and the
Savoy
Hotel
(p. 180)—been replaced by nondescript
offices and chain restaurants.
Leicester Square & Piccadilly
Piccadilly
Circus and Leicester Square are two of the
capital's most famous locations, and yet
you can't help feeling that if all London's
attractions were of this quality, the city
wouldn't receive any visitors at all. A
barely-there square, Piccadilly Circus is
more the confluence of major streets—
Regent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, and
Piccadilly—than it is a venue in its own
right. It is a small, partly pedestrianized
junction with relentless traffic and crowds;
some interesting, if rather overshadowed
Regency architecture (which can be seen
to better effect on Regent Street); and one
small, albeit undeniably pretty statue
known to most Londoners as Eros
(although trivia fans should note that it was
meant to be his brother, Anteros, the Greek
god of requited love).
Leicester Square, just to the east, is
larger and fully pedestrianized, and has a
bit more going on, but is perhaps even
more tawdry—a hub of theatres, restau-
rants, movie palaces, and mainstream
nightlife. It's convenient for those who
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