Tag: Covent Garden

The Scotsman Hotel was right across the street from the Waverly Train Station. After checking out, all I needed to do was take the elevator down to the lowest level, cross the street and then look at the boards inside the train station to see from which platform my train would be leaving.

On the four hour train ride back to London, I sat with two really enjoyable ladies. The first one got on the train with me in Edinburgh and the other joined us in Newcastle. They both went all the way to London with me and helped the time fly by.

This time in London, I was staying at the Amba Charing Cross Hotel, which is on the Strand, right next to the Charing Cross Train Station. As soon as I checked in, I headed out to spend some time in the Covent Garden and Soho areas. First I headed up Charing Cross Road to say farewell to Wyndhams Theatre and its production of Don Juan in Soho. Then I went over to St Paul’s Covent Garden.

Built by Inigo Jones in 1633, St Paul’s was nicknamed the Actor’s Church. Several actors have memorials there including Peter O’Toole, Vivian Leigh, Boris Karloff, Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, and others. During a past visit, there had been a plaque that indicated that some of the plague victims from 1665 were buried underneath the garden. I couldn’t find that sign on this particular trip. But I found the photo I had taken of the sign on the prior trip once I got home. It is among the photos I have included.

I stopped in at Covent Garden Market and explored the shops that were there. I missed the Dolls House shop that used to be there for several years. I always found something unique and highly British to buy there. Several tea shops were still there as were shops like Crabtree & Evelyn. More pubs and other places to eat were there than had been in the past plus more souvenir shops. Stopped to take a photo of the Royal Opera House before heading off to the Lamb & Flag.

Mom and I used to have lunch at the Lamb & Flag when we visited London together. They had good pub grub. In 1679, King Charles II sent men to confront the poet John Dryden out in the narrow street next to the pub and to beat the living daylights out of him. He had published a not too gentlemanly satirical verse against one of the king’s mistresses. The building itself dates from early 18^th century (after Dryden’s encounter with the king’s men) and became a pub in 1772.

At that point in time that particular area of Covent Garden was rather violent. The upstairs room of the pub held bare-knuckle prize fights causing the pub to be called “The Bucket of Blood”. By the 19^th century, things had calmed down a bit and Charles Dickens used to frequent the place. The upstairs room is now used for serving food while downstairs is more of a bar and gathering place.

From the Lamb & Flag, I set off for Maiden Lane, which is the street between Covent Garden and The Strand. The oldest continuous restaurant in London, Rules was established in 1798 and still serves traditional British food – classic game, oysters, pies, and puddings. It was where the future King Edward VII wooed the actress Lillie Langtry when he was still Prince of Wales.

Other famous actors and authors who dined there have included Henry Irving, Laurence Olivier, Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, John Barrymore, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, and H G Wells. I have never dined there myself. But Mom and I had a traditional British dinner at the nearby Simpson’s on the Strand during a visit that included my birthday.

Back in 1897, the actor William Terriss (known for playing swashbuckling heros) was murdered in Maiden Lane just outside of the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre. The man who stabbed him was a fellow actor who had become unhinged. He spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum.

Heading down the narrow Bull Inn Court towards the Strand, I encountered the Nell Gwynne Tavern. On a plaque outside of the tavern it says, “Built on the site of the Old Bull Inn, the Nell Gwynne Tavern was named after the infamous mistress of King Charles II. Nell, born and raised in this locality, sold fruit in nearby Covent Garden before gaining fame as an actress on the Drury Lane stage. Samuel Pepys, the renowned diarist, describes seeing ‘the mighty pretty Nell’ on his way to the Strand in 1667.”

The Nell Gwynne is a fairly small, cozy pub with some tasty toasties on the short menu. I liked both the food and the atmosphere of the place and didn’t feel odd going there with my mother in prior years or on my own.

The rather weathered Statue of Charles II that has stood near the center of Soho Square since 1681 figures in the comedy Don Juan in Soho. At one point it even comes to life for the rather snozzled Don Juan. So I am including a photo of him too.

Next time – a visit to the London Warner Brothers Studios where much of the Harry Potter movies were filmed to see the sets, costumes, and props from the films.

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