Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Royal Opera House
Bow St • Foyer: daily 10am-3.30pm • Several tours including backstage tours (1hr 15min) take place regularly and can be booked in
advance: Mon-Fri 10.30am, 12.30pm & 2.30pm, Sat 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm & 1.30pm • £12 •
T
020 7304 4000,
W
roh.org.uk •
!
Covent Garden
The main entrance to the
Royal Opera House
- a splendid Corinthian portico - stands
opposite the former Bow Street magistrates' court. The original theatre witnessed the
premieres of Goldsmith's
She Stoops to Conquer
and Sheridan's
The Rivals
before being
destroyed by fire in 1808. To offset the cost of rebuilding, ticket prices were increased;
riots ensued for 61 performances until the manager finally backed down. The current
building dates from 1858, and is the city's main opera house, home to both the Royal
Ballet and Royal Opera. A covered passageway connects the piazza with Bow Street,
and allows access to the ROH box o
ce, and upstairs to the beautiful Victorian
wrought-iron-and-glass
Floral Hall
. Continuing up the escalators, you reach the
Amphitheatre
bar-restaurant, with a fine terrace overlooking the piazza.
Drury Lane
One block east of Bow Street runs
Drury Lane
, nothing to write home about in its
present condition, but in Tudor and Stuart times a very fashionable address. During
the Restoration, it became a permanent fixture in London's theatrical and social life,
but by the eighteenth century, it had become a notorious slum rife with prostitution.
Nevertheless, it was at no. 179 that J Sainsbury (founder of the supermarket chain)
opened his first food store in 1869 - “Quality perfect, prices lower” - and it is here, of
course, that the Mu
in Man lives in the children's nursery rhyme.
8
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Drury Lane •
!
Covent Garden
The most famous building in the street is the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
first established
here in 1663 - the current theatre (the fourth on the site) dates from 1812, faces onto
Catherine Street and currently churns out Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. It was at
the original theatre that women were first permitted to appear on stage in England
COVENT GARDEN'S SHOPPING STREETS
Apple may have arrived on the piazza, but the shopping streets to the north still hold one or
two surprises.
Floral Street
, a quiet cobbled backstreet, running east-west one block north of
the piazza, is a good place to start. At the eastern end is a strange helix-shaped walkway
connecting the Royal Ballet School with the Royal Opera House. In the western half you can
inspect the tongue-in-cheek window displays of three adjoining shops run by top-selling
British designer Paul Smith (nos. 40-44). Another quirky outlet is the shop entirely dedicated to
Tintin, the Belgian boy-detective (no. 34). Meanwhile, squeezed beside a very narrow alleyway
off Floral Street is the
Lamb and Flag
, the pub where the Poet Laureate, John Dryden, was
beaten up in December 1679 by a group of thugs, hired most probably by his rival poet, the
Earl of Rochester, who mistakenly thought Dryden was the author of an essay satirizing him.
One block north,
Long Acre
has long been Covent Garden's main shopping street, though it
originally specialized in coach manufacture. The most famous shop on the street is
Stanfords
,
the world's oldest and largest map shop (see p.430), packed to the rafters with Rough Guides.
Look out, too, for
Carriage Hall
, an old stabling yard originally used by coachmakers (now
converted into shops), surrounded by cast-iron pillars and situated between Long Acre and
Floral Street. Running north from Long Acre,
Neal Street
features some fine Victorian
warehouses, complete with stair towers for loading and shifting goods between floors, from
the days of the fruit, vegetable and flower market. The street is currently dominated by shoe
stores, with only a few alternative shops left:
Food for Thought
, the veggie café founded in
1971, is a rare survivor, as is
Neal's Yard
, a tiny little courtyard off Shorts Gardens, stuffed with
cafés and prettily festooned with flower boxes and ivy.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP
THE MARKET HALL
P.131
; BALLERINA NEAR ROYAL OPERA HOUSE; THE TEA HOUSE, NEAL ST >
