Covent Garden, the pedestrianised heart of London, reopened with over 35 restaurants offering an additional 500 new outdoor dining seats, bringing the total to 800! There is also a street food festival, new pop-up bars on the Piazza, and a new botanical garden outdoor picnic area.
This marks the start of a 6 month programme of pop-up bars, public art installations, outdoor performance and culture.
Famous for its dining offering, Covent Garden has unveiled a new open air scheme across the estate to expand its al fresco offer.
The scheme spans seven streets as well as the historic Piazza, offering weatherproof drinking and dining options for visitors, with heaters, lighting, large parasols and windbreak screens.
Much loved restaurants offering outdoor dining include neighbourhood favourites and independent restaurants Frenchie, The Oystermen, Cora Pearl, Flat Iron, Ladurée, Da Henrietta, Avo Bar, Mariage Freres and Din Tai Fung.
Meanwhile, La Goccia’s hidden courtyard oasis and Sushisamba’s terrace remain open offering new menus and dishes to be discovered.
A number of streets around the area will continue to be pedestrianised including Henrietta Street, Floral Street, Maiden Lane and Southampton Street, joining the existing pedestrianised Piazza, King Street and James Street - continuing to make Covent Garden an al fresco enclave filled with shopping, dining and discovery.
The area has also unveiled a large scale ‘Hello London’ sign in front of the Market Building as a welcome back to visitors, staff and shoppers who have been away from the estate since December.
Visitors will also be able to enjoy a street food festival, which is open now until Sunday 16 May, from Feast It, offering a changing weekly roster of street food pop-ups.
From Monday to Sunday each week pop-ups including British Street Food Award winner Utter Waffle, Bubble Bros, The Barrow, Milktree Gelato, The Smoky Gaucho and Hermanos Tacos House, will open up on Covent Garden’s Piazza.
The Little Orange Van, Beetle Juice and Kuka Coffee will also be serving cocktails and drinks for everyone to enjoy al fresco.
Adding to the selection of outdoor dining spots, there will be a series of new al fresco Piazza pop ups the first of which will be the Tanqueray Terrace in partnership with Dirty Martini, offering a brand new limited edition edit of 5 cocktails as well as range of classic Fevertree gin & tonics from today until 3 May.
Alongside this, Covent Garden has unveiled a new botanical garden on the East Piazza, which will provide additional seating for visitors to sit, relax and dine on the estate’s takeaway offers in the heart of historic central London. Over 1,000 overflowing botanical plants will be used here creating this urban oasis.
As the estate welcomes visitors back, social distancing measures have been put in place with clear floor markings and signage, with an optional one-way system through the Market Building ready to be implemented if required.
