Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. In today's video, we're going for a walk around Covent Garden
in London. It's one of London's famous areas, and it's known for entertainment and performers.
So as we walk around, I'm going to tell you some of the things that I know about this
area. Are you ready? Let's go.
That's a cool shop!
So here we are in Covent Garden. This area's really famous for theaters and street performers.
And even though there are modern shops all around us and cafes, whenever I come here,
I really get a sense of the old London, the London of 100 years ago or 150 years ago.
At that time, too, there would have been street performers. And they would have sold roses
and sung songs, songs like this, "Who will buy my sweet red roses? Such a sight you never
did see." That song is from a musical called "Oliver". And that was written by Charles
Dickens. So yeah. When I come to Covent Garden, I get a sense of all the history of London.
Let's take a look at some of the performers.
I don't know about you, but I think I've seen enough street performers now to last me a
while. So I've taken you to a different part of Covent Garden because right behind me is
a house where the great author Charles Dickens used to live. And do you know anything about
Charles Dickens? Because he's one of our most famous writers. And he wrote at a time where
London was pretty much poverty, disease, and misery for most Londoners. So we're really
lucky to have the very different London that you see today. But I want to show you a part
of Covent Garden so you can really imagine that time of Charles Dickens.
Shoe distraction!
Here we are at Seven Dials. It's a part of Covent Garden where there's a roundabout and
seven streets coming off the roundabout. This place, in Victorian London, was a very different
place. It was London's poorest slum. So it was one of London's worst areas. At that time,
in a single house, as many as seven families lived. There was no electricity. There was
no running water. So you can imagine it was a very dirty place. Also, there would have
been a lot of crime around here because the families were very poor. These days, we see
something really different. We see expensive boutiques. We see nice cafes. But at that
time, the shops were called "rag and bone shops", and that means they didn't sell new
things; they sold really, really old clothing that was almost falling apart, very, very
old boots. So there was nothing new because this was a really poor area then.
Because London is so old, we have secret alleyways like this. This is called "Neal's Yard", and
it's actually one of my favorite places in Covent Garden because just down there, there
are some cafes and really nice juice bars and things like that. But can you imagine
how scary it would have been in Victorian times when all the people around here were
a bit poor and a bit dodgy? But we're quite safe now. What I'm going to do now is get
warm in one of those nice cafes there. And what you can do now is go and do the quiz
for today's video on the EngVid website. If you enjoyed this tour around Covent Garden,
thumbs up. And don't forget to subscribe. And I'd just like to say thanks for watching.
See you later.