Covent Garden
Pricey shops and restaurants but bring 1.5 Euros for the bathroom anyway.
In the George Bernard Shaw musical, Pygmalion, which later became the movie, “My Fair Lady,” Eliza Doolittle is selling flowers in the market. And that market is Covent Garden. Ironically, her thick cockney accent is what draws attention to herself. I say this because, in the 1500’s, this was the CONVENT’S garden, but it seems quite a few Londoners (like the fictional Liza) who couldn’t speak the Queen’s English managed to rename it Covent Garden. Oh, you can’t make the leap between the movie and the history? Welcome to my husband’s world.
This is not Covent Garden, it’s the nearby Underground station. This is the market.
There are two main covered areas like this, plus an outdoor plaza where street entertainers plied their trade for tips. On this chilly mid-October day, this man was really earning his living.
It seems there was a theater production about Tina Turner’s life going on, and some marketing creative got the idea to promote the show by displaying her concert wardrobe throughout the market area. Underneath the actual garment were pictures from the concert of her wearing the item. What a difference a middle aged body in good condition can make.
This is especially brilliant because the theater district is right across the street. So tickets to the show are just a few steps away. They also had flyers around the town as well.
Covent Garden is no longer selling fruits and vegetables, but a variety of expensive products from permanent little stores. There is a commemorative plaque from the “worshipful company of fruiterers” marking the end of the farmer’s era of glory in 1974…and its beginning in 1670 — 304 years.
Could this sad turn of events have been triggered by the flood of tourists who began coming in the years after the popular movie? Or did this plaza become too valuable for vegetable sellers to afford some other way?
A more succinct history was posted outside the Punch and Judy Tavern.
Even though the puppet show called “Punch and Judy” originated in Italy, their first known appearance in England was at St. Paul’s church next door. We couldn’t go in the church that particular day, however they had a lovely…you guessed it…garden. I don’t know why I didn’t get a picture of it! But I do have this interesting bird to share with you.
Do you know what it is? Pretty good size! So about Punch and Judy…
We wanted to go sit down and have a libation while “watching the market go by” like it promised in the plaque, but they didn’t open until 4pm. So we kept wandering through and heard some delightful music.
Some people have favorite colors and favorite foods, but I have a favorite instrument and it’s the violin — and a favorite piece of classical music and it’s Pacheibel Canon D followed very closely by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. A terrible movie but a wonderful long musical masterpiece. Long story long, I could have stood there for the entire concert.
Wonderful! But I needed to find a bathroom. I eventually found it downstairs in the restaurant area, but the price tag was 1.5 Euros. I have a brilliant idea for England to stimulate their economy: stop charging $2 to go to the bathroom in shopping mall type areas! We had not exchanged any money, so we went across the street and down the block to the Royal Opera House.
Now that was a beautiful bathroom and absolutely free. They had a cafe with a lot of well-dressed people in various stages of ordering food or eating it. And they had some wonderful displays of costumes and props from some of their more famous operas.
I couldn’t get a good shot of the others, but you get the idea. It was almost like I got paid the equivalent of 1.5 Euros to use the bathroom thanks to the mini museum and the beautiful building.
All of this only took a couple of hours, but it is taking me even longer to tell you about it. I would have loved to have taken the opera house tour or even better attended a performance, but alas this is the penny pincher’s version of travel and my husband doesn’t care for singing of any kind, but especially not sopranos. I can’t wait to tell you about the rest of our marvelous day, but for now I must retire.
