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Meet Your Guide
Welcome to my page! I am an italian living in London since 2007, with dual citizenship (Italian-British). I,... more
Discover the history of Covent Garden Market and browse the area's shops!
We will do a short circular walk which starts and finishes close to Covent Garden subway station. Our tour has 2 main parts, but I could focus and spend more time on either, based on your interests. On the first part, we'd visit the former orchard of a 13th century Abbey.
The standard version of this tour lasts 2 hours, and a longer version would go up to 3, 5 hours with additional sights and shops. This being said, on either one, we'd first see Covent Garden Market, including sights of the 1800's Floral Hall, now being part of the Royal Opera House. If we had around 3 hours to go, we'd even enter this theatre to better see the Hall.
This tour's 2nd half covers a few vintage fashion shops in the area, visiting 4 in 2 hours or 8 in 3, 5 hours. Regardless of how long you go on this tour, it's ideal for anyone keen on markets, history, architecture & vintage fashion.
Note: If you were to do this tour on a Monday, you'll see that the Covent Garden stalls sell antiques. Any other day, they sell various crafts.
Itinerary
·We'd meet opposite Covent Garden subway station.
·After a short walk, we'd dive into our tour's 1st part: a visit to Covent Garden Market (no car zone). What started as Westminster Abbey's orchard in the 1200's and became London's main fruit, vegetables and flowers market from 1600's, is now a restaurant, shopping and theatre area, famous for its street performers.
·We'll stroll through the stalls of the Apple, the Jubilee markets (now selling antiques and beautiful crafts) and see the Floral Hall (now part of the Royal Opera House).
·Later, we'll explore some vintage fashion shops, where we'll enter and browse the fantastic array, from top designer brands to unknown ones, from 1920's to 1990's, with different price ranges. You could try and maybe even buy anything you fancied, and I'd be happy to help you choose the best! All shops are at a short distance from each other.
·After covering both parts, we'd return to the station.
This is an ideal outing for ladies' group!
This itinerary is customizable.
Meeting Point + Tour Duration
Meeting Point Options: Rail or Bus Station
Duration: 2 hours
The standard version of the tour lasts 2 hours, and the longer version goes up to 3 and a half hours, for a slightly higher price. Send me a message if you'd like to go on longer!
Transportation
On foot.
What’s Included
- Guiding Services
Estimated Local Cash Needed
100 GBP - I suggest to bring at least £100 if you want to buy crafts/souvenirs at the Covent Garden Market and vintage fashion shops, whose prices vary from as little as £5 to several hundreds of pounds for high end brands.
What’s Extra
- Personal Expenses
- Souvenirs
- Food, Drinks, Snacks
Other: I planned a couple of stops for a short rest, where you could buy drinks/snacks and use the restrooms. It is a shopping area and there's are plenty of opportunities to buy souvenirs. In the second part of the tour you could buy vintage fashion, where prices vary.
Average prices for drinks/snacks: £2 for a 0,5ml water bottle, £3 long coffee, £4 snack/pastry, £5 sandwich, £10 salad, £10-15 a glass of alcoholic drink.
Bring credit/debit cards, cash (coins/banknotes) is not necessary as most shops/stalls accept only cards.
Restrictions
* Cannot guide inside monuments: Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, etc.
* I am not driving on a tour.
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Book this tour
Tour Price$257 USD PER TOURFor up to 4 people (duration: 2 hours) deposit ?
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