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Getting Oriented | Top Attractions | Worth Noting

Updated by Julius Honnor

Once a red-light district, today’s Soho is more stylish than seedy and offers some of London’s best nightclubs, live music venues, restaurants, and theaters. By day, this hotbed of media production (Sir Paul McCartney’s offices are here) reverts to the business side of its late-night scene. If Soho is all about showbiz, neighboring Covent Garden—once the stomping grounds of My Fair Lady’s Eliza Doolittle and landmark home to the Royal Opera House—is devoted to culture. Both districts offer an abundance of narrow streets packed with one-of-a-kind shops and lots of character.

The narrow, winding streets of Soho lie to the east of Regent Street and to the south of Oxford Street and are unabashedly devoted to pleasure. Wardour Street bisects the neighborhood, with lots of interesting boutiques and some of London’s best-value restaurants to the west (especially around Foubert’s Place and on Brewer and Lexington streets), and nightlife central to the east, including London’s gay mecca, Old Compton Street, and beyond that, the city’s densest collection of theaters on Shaftesbury Avenue. London’s compact Chinatown is wedged between Soho and Leicester Square. A bit of erudition surfaces on Charing Cross Road, to the east of the square, famous for its secondhand bookshops, and on tiny Cecil Court, a pedestrianized passage lined with small antiquarian booksellers.

To the east of Charing Cross Road lies Covent Garden, the famous marketplace turned shopping mall. Although boutiques and haute fashion shops line the surrounding streets, many Londoners come to Convent Garden for its two outposts of culture: the Royal Opera House and the Donmar Warehouse, one of London’s best and most innovative theaters. The area becomes more sedate just to the north, at the end of Wellington Street, where semicircular Aldwych is lined with grand buildings, and from there the Strand leads to the huge, stately piazza of Somerset House, which contains the many masterpieces on view at the Courtauld Institute Gallery. You’ll get a sense of old-fashioned London just behind the Strand, where small lanes are little changed since the 18th century. On the way to the verdant Embankment Gardens bordering the Thames, you may pass the Adam Houses, the remnants of a grand 18th-century riverside housing development, and the Benjamin Franklin House, where the noted statesman lived in the years leading up to the American Revolution.

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Getting Oriented

Top Reasons to Go

Find tomorrow’s look in the Newburgh Quarter: Head to this adorable, cobblestoned warren of streets for a ultra-hip array of specialist boutiques, edgy stores, and young indy upstarts.

Gourmet Country: London has fallen in love with its tummy and Soho is home to many of the most talked-about restaurants in town.

Delight in the Covent Garden Piazza: Eliza Doolittle’s former stamping ground has been taken over by fun boutiques and performers (who play to the crowds at night).

The Royal Opera House: Even if you’re not going to the opera or ballet, take in the beautiful architecture and sense of history.

See a West End hit in Theatreland: Shaftesbury Avenue is the heart of Theatreland, where almost 50 West End theaters are a stand-in Mecca for those who love Shakespeare, Maggie Smith, and the Phantom.

Feeling Peckish?

Although they may set out a few tables, the coffee shops and snack bars along the Covent Garden market buildings can be overpriced and of poor quality. It’s usually best to head for Soho when the munchies strike.

Food for Thought.
Food for Thought is always crowded, with hungry customers queuing outside for a delicious range of vegetarian dishes. Be prepared to share a table. | 31 Neal St., Covent Garden | WC2H 9PR | 020/7836–9072.

Kulu Kulu.
Kulu Kulu offers fresh, good-value sushi. Dishes trundle around on a conveyor belt—ideal if you’re pressed for time. | 51–53 Shelton St., Covent Garden | WC2H 9HE | 020/7240–5687.

Maison Bertaux.
Maison Bertaux has been around since the end of the 19th century. Decor is spartan, but fab French cakes, tarts, and savory quiches more than make up for that. Nobody’s mother ever baked this well. | 28 Greek St., Soho | WID 5DQ | 020/7437–6007.

Getting There

Almost all Tube lines cross the Covent Garden and Soho areas, so it’s easy to hop off for a dinner or show in the hippest area of London. For Soho, take any train to Piccadilly Circus, or Leicester Square, Oxford Circus, or Tottenham Court Road. For Covent Garden, get off at the Covent Garden station on the Piccadilly line. It might be easier to exit the Tube at Leicester Square or Holborn and walk. Thirty buses connect to the Covent Garden area from all over London; check out the area’s website, www.coventgarden.uk.com.

Making the Most of Your Time

You can comfortably tour all the sights around Soho and Covent Garden in a day. Visit the small but perfect Courtauld Gallery on Monday before 2 pm, when entry is free. That leaves plenty of time to watch some street entertainment or shop at the food and souvenir and stalls around Covent Garden Piazza or in the fashion boutiques of Soho. Save some energy for a night on the town (or “on the tiles,” as the British say) in Soho.

Gay London

Old Compton Street in Soho is the epicenter of London’s affluent, stylish gay scene. There are some smart nightclubs in the area, with crowds forming in Soho Square, south of Oxford Street.

Madame Jo Jo’s.
Madame Jo Jo’s has been around for 50 years. The club’s Kitsch Cabaret, performed every Saturday evening, is so popular (with straights as well as gays) that it’s usually booked weeks in advance. | 8–10 Brewer St. | W1F OSE | 020/7734–3040 | www.madamejojos.com.

Top Attractions

Courtauld Institute Gallery.
One of London’s most beloved art collections, the Courtauld is to your right as you pass through the archway into the grounds of the beautifully restored, grand 18th-century neoclassical Somerset House. Founded in 1931 by the textile magnate Samuel Courtauld to house his remarkable private collection, this is one of the world’s finest Impressionist and post-Impressionist galleries, with artists ranging from Bonnard to van Gogh. A déjà-vu moment with Cézanne, Degas, Seurat, or Monet awaits on every wall (Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergère and Le Dejjeuner sur L’Herbe are two of the stars). Botticelli, Brueghel, Tiepolo, and Rubens are also represented, thanks to the exquisite bequest of Count Antoine Seilern’s Princes Gate collection. German Renaissance paintings, bequeathed in 1947, include the colorful and delightfully wicked Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The second floor has a more provocative, experimental feel, with masterpieces such as Modigliani’s iconic Female Nude. Don’t miss the little café downstairs, a perfect place for a spot of tea. | Somerset House, Strand, Covent Garden | WC2R 0RN | 020/7848–2526 | www.courtauld.ac.uk | £6, free Mon. 10–2, except bank holidays | Daily 10–6; last admission 5:30 | Station: Covent Garden, Holborn, Temple.

Covent Garden Piazza.
Once home to London’s main flower market, and former stomping ground of My Fair Lady’s Eliza Doolittle, the square around which Covent Garden pivots is known as the Piazza. In the center, a building houses market stalls and shops selling higher-class clothing, plus several restaurants and cafés and knickknack stores that are good for gifts. One particular gem is Benjamin Pollock’s Toyshop at No. 44 in the market. Established in the 1880s, it sells delightful toy theaters. The superior Apple Market has good crafts stalls on most days, too. On the south side of the Piazza, the indoor Jubilee Market, with its stalls of clothing, army-surplus gear, and more crafts and knickknacks, has a distinct flea-market feel. In summer it may seem that everyone you see around the Piazza (and the crowds are legion) is a fellow tourist, but there’s still plenty of office life in the area. Londoners who shop here tend to head for Neal Street and the area to the north of Covent Garden Tube station rather than the touristy market itself. In the Piazza, performers—from global musicians to jugglers and mimes—play to the crowds, as they have done since the first English Punch and Judy Show, staged here in the 17th century. | Covent Garden | WC2E 8BE | Station: Covent Garden.

London Transport Museum.
Housed in the old flower market at the southeast corner of Covent Garden, this stimulating museum is filled with impressive poster, photograph, and vehicle collections. As you watch the crowds drive a Tube-train simulation and gawk at the horse-drawn trams (and the piles of detritus that remained behind) and steam locomotives, it’s unclear who’s enjoying it more, children or adults. Best of all, the kid-friendly (under 16 admitted free) museum has a multilevel approach to education, including information for the youngest visitor to the most advanced transit aficionado. Food and drink are available at the Upper Deck café and the shop has lots of good options for gift-buying. | Covent Garden Piazza | WC2E 7BB | 020/7565–7298 | www.ltmuseum.co.uk | £13.50 | Sat.–Thurs. 10–6 (last admission 5:15), Fri. 11–6 (last admission 5:15) | Station: Leicester Sq., Covent Garden.

Fodor’s Choice | Newburgh Quarter.
Want to see the hip style of today’s London? Find it just one block east of Carnaby Street—where the look of the ‘60s “Swinging London” was born and publicized—in an adorable warren of cobblestoned streets now lined with specialist boutiques, edgy stores, young indy upstarts, and concept stores (for biggies like Barbour and Levi’s). Here, just two blocks west of roaring Regent Street, the future of England’s fashion is being incubated in stores such as Lucy in Disguise and Sweaty Betty. A check of the ingredients reveals one part ‘60s London, one part Futuristic Fetishism, one part Dickensian charm, and one part British street swagger. The Nouveau Boho look flourishes best in shops like Peckham Rye, a tiny boutique crowded with rockers and fashion plates who adore its grunge–meets–Brideshead Revisted vibe. Or continue down Newburgh Street to Beyond the Valley, an art-school showcase whose designers have successfully paired graphic art-prints with kitschy outfits. | Newburgh St., Foubert’s Pl., Ganton St., and Carnaby St., Soho | Carnaby.co.uk.

Fodor’s Choice | Royal Opera House.
London’s premier opera and ballet venue was designed in 1858 by E.M. Barry, son of Sir Charles, the House of Commons architect, and is the third theater on the site. The first theater opened in 1732 and burned down in 1808; the second opened a year later, only to succumb to fire in 1856. The entire building, which has been given a spectacular overhaul, retains the magic of the grand Victorian theater (but is now more accessible). The glass-and-steel Floral Hall is the most wonderful feature; you can wander around and drink in (literally, in the foyer café) the interior. The same is true of the Amphitheatre Bar and Piazza concourse, where you can have lunch while looking out at a splendid panorama across the city. There are free lunchtime chamber concerts and lectures, as well as tea dances and occasional free jazz concerts, which go a long way to making this venue a great space for the common people. | Bow St., Covent Garden | WC2E 9DD | 020/7240–1200 | www.roh.org.uk | Station: Covent Garden.

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A Brief History

Almost as soon as a 17th-century housing development covered what had been a royal park and hunting ground, Soho earned a reputation for entertainment, bohemianism, and cosmopolitan tolerance. When the authorities introduced zero tolerance of soliciting in 1991 (the most recent of several attempts to end Soho’s sex trade), they cracked down on an old neighborhood tradition that still resurfaces from time to time.

Successive waves of refugees, from French Huguenots in the 1680s followed by Germans, Russians, Poles, Greeks, Italians, and Chinese, settled and brought their ethnic cuisines with them. So when dining out became fashionable after World War I, Soho was the natural place for restaurants to flourish.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, Soho was London’s artists’ quarter and the place to find the top jazz clubs and art galleries. Among the luminaries who have made their home here are landscape painter John Constable; Casanova, the famous Lothario; Canaletto, the great painter of Venice; poet William Blake; and the revolutionary Karl Marx.

Present-day Covent Garden took shape in the 1630s, when Inigo Jones turned what had been agricultural land into Britain’s first planned public square. After the Great Fire of 1666, it became the site of England’s largest fruit-and-vegetable market (the flower market arrived in the 19th century). This, along with the district’s many theaters and taverns, gave the area a somewhat dubious reputation, and after the produce market relocated in 1973, the surviving buildings were scheduled for demolition. A local campaign saved them, and the restored market opened in 1980.

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Fodor’s Choice | Somerset House.
In recent years this huge complex—the work of Sir William Chambers (1726–96), built during the reign of George III to house offices of the Navy—has completed its transformation from dusty government offices to one of the capital’s most buzzing centers of culture and the arts, hosting several interesting exhibitions at any one time. The cobbled Italianate courtyard, where Admiral Nelson used to walk, makes a great setting for 55 playful fountains and is transformed into a romantic ice rink in winter; the grand space is the venue for music and outdoor cinema screenings in summer. The Courtauld Institute Gallery occupies most of the north building, facing the busy Strand. Across the courtyard are the Embankment Galleries, with a vibrant calendar of design, fashion, architecture, and photography exhibitions. The East Wing has another fine exhibition space and events are sometimes also held in the atmospherically gloomy cellars below the Fountain Court. Tom’s Kitchen offers fine dining and the Deli has mouthwatering cakes and pastries. In summer eating and drinking spills out onto the large terrace next to the Thames. | The Strand, Covent Garden | WC2R 1LA | 020/7845–4600 | www.somersethouse.org.uk | Embankment Galleries £5, Courtauld Gallery £6, other areas free | Daily 10–6; last admission 5:30 | Station: Charing Cross, Waterloo, Blackfriars.

Worth Noting

The Adam Houses.
Only a few structures remain of what was once a regal riverfront row of houses on a 3-acre site, but such is their quality that they are worth a detour off the Strand to see. The work of 18th-century Scottish architects and interior designers (John, Robert, James, and William Adam, known collectively as the Adam brothers), the original development was damaged in the 19th century during the building of the embankment, and mostly demolished in 1936 to be replaced by an art deco tower. The original houses still standing are protected, and give a glimpse of their former grandeur. Nos. 1–4 Robert Street and Nos. 7 and 10 Adam Street are the best.

Royal Society of Arts. At the Royal Society of Arts, you can see a suite of Adam rooms; no reservations are required. | 8 John Adam St. | 020/7930–5115 | www.thersa.org | Free | 1st Sun. of month, 10–1 | The Strand, Covent Garden | WC2N 6AA | Closed weekends | Station: Charing Cross, Embankment.

Benjamin Franklin House.
This architecturally significant 1730 house is the only surviving residence of American statesman, scientist, writer, and inventor Benjamin Franklin, who lived and worked here for 16 years preceding the American Revolution. The restored Georgian town house has been left unfurnished, the better to show off the original features—18th-century paneling, stoves, beams, bricks, and windows. Older children (under 16 admitted free) particularly enjoy the Student Science Centre, an interactive display of scientific experiments that contrasts historical and modern knowledge. There’s also a glass harmonica (which Franklin invented while living there) and a scholarship center with a complete collection of Franklin’s papers. On Monday you can take a guided tour focusing on the architectural details of the building. | 36 Craven St., Covent Garden | WC2N 5NF | 020/7839–2006, 020/7925–1405 booking line | www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org | £7 | Wed.–Sun. noon–5 | Station: Charing Cross, Embankment.

Leicester Square.
Looking at the neon of the major movie houses, the fast-food outlets, and the disco entrances, you’d never guess that this square (pronounced Lester) was a model of formality and refinement when it was first laid out around 1630. By the 19th century the square was already bustling and disreputable, and although it’s not a threatening place, you should still be on your guard, especially at night—any space so full of people is bound to attract pickpockets, and Leicester Square certainly does. Although a bit of residual glamour from the days of red-carpet film premieres remains, Londoners generally tend to avoid this windswept plaza, crowded as it is with suburban teenagers, wandering backpackers, and mimes. In the middle is a statue of a sulking Shakespeare, clearly wishing he were somewhere else and perhaps remembering the days when the cinemas were live theaters—burlesque houses, but live all the same. Here, too, are figures of Newton, Hogarth, Reynolds, and Charlie Chaplin. On the northeast corner, in Leicester Place, stands the church of Notre Dame de France, with a wonderful mural by Jean Cocteau in one of its side chapels. For more in the way of atmosphere, head north and west from here, through Chinatown and the narrow streets of Soho. | Covent Garden | WC2H 7JY | Station: Leicester Sq.

St. Paul’s Church.
If you want to commune with the spirits of Vivien Leigh, Noël Coward, Edith Evans, or Charlie Chaplin, this might be just the place. Memorials to them and many other theater greats are found in this 1633 work of the renowned Inigo Jones, who, as the King’s Surveyor of Works, designed the whole of Covent Garden Piazza. St. Paul’s Church has been known as “the actors’ church” since the Restoration, thanks to the neighboring theater district and St. Paul’s prominent parishioners. (Well-known actors often read the lessons at services, and the church still hosts concerts and small-scale productions.) Fittingly, the opening scene of Shaw’s Pygmalion takes place under its Tuscan portico (you might know it better from the musical My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn). The western end of the Piazza is a prime pitch for street entertainers, but if they’re not to your liking, you can repair to the serenity of the garden entered from King or Bedford streets. | Bedford St., Covent Garden | WC2E 9ED | Station: Covent Garden.

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
This is London’s best-known auditorium and almost its largest. Since World War II, the Drury Lane’s forte has been musicals (past ones have included The King and I, My Fair Lady, South Pacific, Hello, Dolly!, and A Chorus Line)—though David Garrick, who managed the theater from 1747 to 1776, made its name by reviving the works of the by-then-obscure William Shakespeare. The Drury Lane enjoys all the romantic accessories of a London theater—a history of fires (it burned down three times), riots (in 1737, when a posse of footmen demanded free admission), attempted regicides (George II in 1716 and his grandson George III in 1800), and even sightings of the most famous phantom of theaterland, the Man in Grey (in the Circle during matinees). | Catherine St., Covent Garden | WC2B 5JF | 020/7494–5000 | Station: Covent Garden.

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