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The elegant Piazza, an Italianate styled main square, is Covent Garden's centrepiece. It’s the heart of a vibrant area offering a wide choice of theatres, shops, restaurants, cafes and public houses.
Free daily shows by the entertaining street performers take place by the portico (porch) of St Paul’s Church and inside the Central Market House.
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The Winter Garden
Earlier this week friends and I enjoyed afternoon tea at The Landmark, a luxury five star hotel located opposite Marylebone Station. The hotel originally opened in 1899 as the Great Central Hotel and designed by RobertWilliam Edis. It was built in conjunction with Marylebone Station, which was the last of the London main line railway termini to be completed. The building has had a varied history as it was requisitioned for military purposes in both World Wars and then later became offices and at one time was the Headquarters for British Rail. It re-opened as a hotel in 1993 and has been known as the London Landmark since 1995.
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St Albans is best known for its magnificent cathedral but if you’ve travelled there by train you might have noticed the historic St Albans Signal Box adjacent to the station. This cheerful yellow and maroon painted building always puts a smile on my face as I travel past it so I was delighted to find out that there are regular free open days throughout the year.
The Signal Box is Grade II listed and dates back to 1892, replacing an earlier one on the site. It is a prefabricated wooden building, meaning that it was built off site, and at a later time the building was extended with the idea to house more levers but they were never installed. It closed in 1979 and has since been restored and opened to the public thanks to the volunteers from the St Albans Signal Box Preservation Trust.
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I was asked by Westminster Libraries to write a guest blog for National Libraries Day 2013.
In the blog "Westminster Libraries and me", I have written about some of my favourite books which I have used to research some of my walks.
If you would like to read the article you can find the link here.
The author of this blog is a qualified City of London and City of Westminster Tour Guide who leads guided walks combining world famous landmarks with hidden treasures often missed by the crowds.