Covent Garden London Market (once owned by monks)
Covent Garden is known for its flowers and mime artists, but used to be owned by the monks of Westminster Abbey. The market building still houses pineapple-shaped lamps, due to being the first place you could buy tropical fruits, back in the day.
If buying or selling flowers, know toxic flowers to avoid near pets. Avoid displaying foliage near gardens, to help stop bird strike.
The monks lost the garden after property was seized during Henry VIII’s Reformation (when he replaced himself as head of the church over Rome’s Catholic Pope).
Here you’ll also find Drury Lane (London’s oldest theatre) and Royal Opera House (students at the Royal Ballet School can reach it over the concertina-like Bridge of Aspiration).
Other districts in the City of Westminster are:
- Soho was originally for aristocrats, but today is more for other professions (back in 1854, the area was hit with a bad outbreak of cholera).
- St James (home to a park, and handmade shirts for rich gentlemen).
- Victoria was built to ferry people from London to Chatham or Brighton (a major holiday destination).
- Knightsbridge (shared with Kensington) is home to Harrods (singer Leona Lewis declined the offer of turning on the Christmas lights, due to it selling fur).
- Green spaces include Green Park, Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park (home to an IRA bombing that killed not just humans, but 7 innocent horses).
