This is Covent Garden
It's called Coven Garden because back in the 15th century the whole area back from
Long Acre up there all the way down to The Strand
was walled off and belonged to the convent or the monastery at Westminster Abbey
it's a place very dear to my heart because I used to work here at a miniature Hamleys toy shop
but it has all changed
now the whole place is full of those confounded pedicab
bloomin' rickshaws now....total rip off in my opinion
it's quicker to walk
This is the Royal Opera house of course
and it's the home of the Royal Ballet
interestingly in 1837 the manager, William McCready invented this concoction where he
mixed hydrogen with oxygen and added lime to it
and he discovered that when he shone this light onto a subject on stage
this had a really good effect of singling out the person on stage
because lime was added to this solution
that's where we get the expression
being in the limelight
and just opposite the royal opera house
is what used to be Bow street Magistrates Court
and Henry Fielding used to sit as a magistrate here
Henry Fielding being the famous author
and it was his idea to first come up with the Bow Street Runners
who were pretty much Britain's first police force. There was only about 6 of them I believe
it then also became the first police station in Britain when Sir Robert Peel formed the Metropolitan Police Force
and that's why we call police "bobbies"
Bob being short for Robert, as in Sir Robert Peel
My name is Dr Philistine
I've been performing in Covent Garden for about 24 years
Captain Frank. Franko with a K; not like the Spanish dictator, like the friendly entertainer
I do a flea circus, I've got one of Britain's only flea circuses
Comedy trousers?
hang on, I haven't got changed yet, these are my street clothes!
It's been a long time
Maybe 15 years?
How does it work here?
We arrive on a morning
on the west piazzaand there's a lottery
and whoever comes out first each day gets the option of the first slot
it's an art form in itself
it's about the movement of people and the thinking of people
and how to attract people'e attention and how to sustain the attention
it's all changed, it's not the same as in my day
none of these shops have anybody in them
that's where I used to work
That used to be Hamleys
They've turned it into what?Christian D'Ior?
I used to stand outside with these funny puppets
for about seven yearsI was there. Unbelievable .
No.....Hamleys is now an empty shell
there we go, I used to walk down those stairs
I won't tell you the stories that used to go on in there
but my friends know what I'm talking about
I used to skive off and end up in the pub which was just over her
but it's now turned into La Duree
Yip I used to sit on that balcony
and pretend that I was off trying to sell toys somewhere
this is st pauls church, not to be confused with st pauls cathedral
and just under here is where the first Punch and Jusy show was performed in1662
Now I believe in this theatre in 1704 there was this pretty hopeless playwright called John Dennis
and he had come out with this play called Appius and Virginia, in which there is some thunder
and he had developed this new method of creating this sound of thunder
by rattling metal balls around in a mustard bowl
and the play did pretty badly and it got ditched
but they started doing Macbeth nearby
and they also had thunder in that and they stole his version of creating this sound of thunder
and he said, "Damn them! They will not let me play run but they steal my thunder!"
and since then we've had this rather handy phrase
This is Drury Lane
and the English claim to have invented a lot of things
they even claimed to have invented boxing
which is a bit ridiculous because let's face it , it's just fighting
one this they do claim to have invented in the sandwich
John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich was
was gambling at the Beefsteak club
which was in a pub called the Shakespeare's Head
which was in a street called Wych Street that got knoced down and then became Aldwych
anyway, he was there gambling and they said "do you want something to eat?"
and he said yes I'll have a pieve of meat between two slices of bread
and everyone else said "I'll have what Sandwich is having"
How long have you beet working here?
32 years now, since i rolled off a number 13 bus in The Strand
in 1982...33 years yeah!!
there's 2 music pitches and the jugglers all work down the other end
this place is London to meyou know
This place used to be full of banyos, brothels, coffe houses , poets
Just where we are now there was a pub called the Shakespeare's Head Tavern
a notorious pub
That is the one, the Shakespeare's head was where the sandwich was invented
the head waiter was a guy called Jack HArris
Jack Harris was a pimp and there was a book called Harris's list of Covent Garden ladies
which was published for about 40 years
for 2 shillings and 6 pence you could get an annual list of 150 prostitues
physical attributes, sexual preferences ,prices, things they were prepared to do
other publications included The Wandering Whore,available from 1660 to 1661
Mary Holland according to this book was tall, graceful, comely and shy of favours
but could be mollified for the cost of £20
Her sister, Elizabeth on the other hand wasles expensive
being indifferent to money but a supper and two guineas would have tempted her
the oldest building in Covent Garden is Russel House which is to the right of the church with the columns
In my fair Lady actually
this is where Henry Higgins meets Eliza Doolittle
because it was done ona set in Hollywood they've actually got the square back to front
That's Russel House over there
and I think it's because they based it on the Hogarth painting
called Morning
Hogarth's prints were of course done off an etching
when he etched something and printed it out everything came off back to front
either that or they fed the negative through the machine back to front
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