Covent Garden

Several distinct things sharing a name, which is worth untangling.

The Apple Market, the covered hall in the centre of the piazza, with craft and antique stalls depending on the day.

The Jubilee Market alongside, with a different mix again.

The piazza itself, where the licensed street performers work.

The surrounding streets — Neal Street, Seven Dials, Floral Street, Long Acre — which are the actual shopping, and are better than the market halls for most purposes.

And the Royal Opera House on one side, with the West End theatres a few minutes in every direction.

It is free to walk into all of it. What costs money is what you buy, eat or book.

The thing that makes the piazza rather than the shops, and it is free.

Performers are licensed and auditioned rather than turning up, and they work scheduled pitches — the main one in the piazza, another in the covered market’s lower courtyard where the acoustics suit musicians and opera singers.

Standards are high. Circus acts, escapologists, classical musicians and comedians rotate through the day.

Shows run roughly half-hourly through the afternoon and into the evening.

If a performer holds you for twenty minutes, put something in the hat — that is the entire arrangement and the licensing scheme depends on it.

The lower courtyard with a singer and a coffee is one of the more pleasant free half-hours in central London.

The piazza is jammed from late morning until early evening, every day, and the crush is the main complaint.

Early morning is a different place — the market setting up, the cobbles empty, and the architecture visible rather than obscured by people. Worth seeing once if you are staying nearby.

Evening is the other good window. The crowd thins after the theatre crowds go in, the lighting is good, and the restaurants and bars take over.

The middle of the day is when to be somewhere else, unless a performer is the reason you came.

Weekday mornings are the calmest combination available.

A practical point that changes the visit.

The market halls themselves sell a mix of craft, souvenirs and gift items, and the quality varies. Some of it is genuinely handmade; some is indistinguishable from any tourist stall in Europe.

The real shopping is in the surrounding streets. Neal Street and Seven Dials hold independents and fashion, Floral Street has the designer end, Long Acre the chains, and Neal’s Yard a cluster of small businesses around a painted courtyard.

Neal’s Yard Dairy nearby is one of the best cheese shops in Britain and is a working supplier rather than a tourist stop.

Walk two streets off the piazza and both the prices and the quality change.

The restaurants directly on the piazza charge for the position and are generally ordinary.

The covered market has food stalls and small counters, which are better value.

The surrounding streets hold a serious concentration of restaurants at every level, from cheap noodles to Michelin stars, and they are where people who know the area eat.

Seven Dials and Neal Street are the best hunting grounds.

Book if you are eating before a theatre performance; the area fills from around six with people doing exactly that, and kitchens are under pressure.

There are good pubs in the surrounding lanes, several of them Victorian and worth seeing for themselves.

On the north-east corner of the piazza and worth knowing about even if opera is not the plan.

The building runs backstage tours, has public foyers and bars that anyone can walk into, and a terrace with a view over the piazza.

Tickets for performances span a very wide range, and day seats and standing places are considerably cheaper than the headline prices suggest.

There are free lunchtime recitals at certain times and relays of performances onto screens in the piazza during some seasons.

For anyone curious about the building rather than the repertoire, the tour and the foyer bar are the low-commitment options.

On the eastern side of the piazza, ticketed, and the strongest indoor attraction in Covent Garden.

It holds historic buses, trams and Underground carriages you can climb into, along with the design story of the Tube map, the roundel and the poster collection.

It is genuinely excellent with children and better with adults than it sounds — the graphic design material in particular.

Tickets are valid for repeat entry over a period, which is unusual and useful.

The shop sells the best souvenirs in Covent Garden by a distance, and is free to enter.

Allow ninety minutes to two hours.

The pattern here is unlike most London attractions: August is the busiest month, but December is almost equal to it, which no other site in this series manages.

That is the Christmas effect. The piazza installs an enormous tree and one of the most photographed light displays in London, the market runs a seasonal programme, and the area becomes a destination in its own right through late November and December.

April, March and May are the quietest.

If you are in London in December, this is one of the places to be at night.

Otherwise the summer months bring the performers out and the piazza is at its liveliest.

An hour to walk the piazza, the market halls and watch a performer.

Two to three hours with the surrounding streets and lunch.

Add two hours for the Transport Museum.

An evening if you are eating and going to a show, which is the natural use of the area — the West End theatres are a few minutes’ walk in every direction.

It is a district rather than an attraction, so it absorbs whatever time you give it.

The practical planning point: do not schedule it for the middle of the day just because you are passing.

Good, and largely free.

The street performers are the draw — circus acts and escapologists hold children completely, and the shows are short enough to suit short attention spans.

The Transport Museum is one of the best family attractions in central London, with buses and trains to climb into.

There is space to sit on the steps and the edges of the piazza.

The crowds are the constraint, particularly with a pushchair in the middle of the day.

The area is pedestrianised, which makes it easier than most of central London for letting children walk.

The piazza is pedestrianised and largely level, though the surface is cobbled in places, which is bumpy for wheels.

The covered market has level access on the upper floor and steps down to the lower courtyard, with lift access available.

The Transport Museum is fully accessible.

Covent Garden Underground station is the problem: it has lifts rather than escalators, they are heavily congested, and the station is exit-only at busy times. Leicester Square, Holborn and Charing Cross are all a short walk away and are easier.

Crowd density in the middle of the day is the main practical barrier.

Covent Garden station is closest but is small, congested and sometimes exit-only at peak times. Leicester Square is a three-minute walk and is usually easier, as are Holborn and Charing Cross.

The area is pedestrianised and everything is on foot.

Within ten minutes: Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, Leicester Square, Soho, the British Museum, and the whole of the West End theatre district.

The Strand and the river are five minutes south, with Somerset House and the walk along the Embankment.

There is no useful parking.

The criticism is about crowds and about the market being touristy, and both are fair at the wrong hour.

The thin version: arrive at two on a Saturday, shuffle through a packed piazza, glance at souvenir stalls, pay a lot for an ordinary lunch on the square, and leave wondering what the fuss is about.

The good version: come early on a weekday for the empty piazza and the architecture, or come in the evening when the crowd thins and the lights come on, watch a performer properly in the lower courtyard, eat two streets back rather than on the square, and walk to a theatre afterwards.

In December, come at night for the lights — it is the single most atmospheric corner of central London at that time of year.