Fodor's Expert Review Covent Garden Piazza

Once home to London's main flower market, where My Fair Lady's flower girl Eliza Doolittle peddled her blooms, the square around which Covent Garden pivots is known as the Piazza. In the center, the fine old market building now houses stalls and shops selling expensive clothing, plus several restaurants, cafés, and knickknack stores that are good for gifts. One particular gem is Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop at No. 44 in the market. Established in the 1880s, it sells enchanting toy theaters. The Apple Market has good crafts stalls on most days, too. On the south side of the Piazza, the indoor Jubilee Market, with its stalls of clothing, army surplus gear, and more crafts, feels more like a flea market.

In summer, it may seem that everyone in the huge crowds around you in the Piazza is a fellow tourist, but there's still plenty of office life in the area. Londoners who shop here tend to head for Neal Street and the area to the north of Covent Garden Tube station, rather than the market itself. In the Piazza, street performers—from foreign musicians to jugglers and mimes—play to the crowds, as they have done since the first English Punch and Judy show, staged here in the 17th century.