THE TUMULTUOUS CITY - The Architecture of Covent Garden & St Giles

Today packed with tourists and the spectacle of boutiques, stalls and pop-up performances, Covent Garden and St Giles were together London’s original and varied West End. While one developed in the 17th century as the city’s first exercise in refined neoclassical town planning, the other became the defining slum of the 18th century; chronicled by artist Hogarth and urban reformers. In service to one of the city’s most celebrated markets, they evolved as rough and tumble districts that in the twentieth century fought and won one of London’s greatest architectural battles. In this walk, The London Ambler recalls clamour and change through the area’s best buildings and most eclectic streetscapes.

A walking tour by The London Ambler - Mike Althorpe