micbinks - UK holiday, leisure & tourist attraction images

Tourist Leisure Attractions - London West End

Belinda and Mike - follow our tourist travels in the UK

Visit to the West End and Soho in London, April 2006

Early in the year we took a trip up to London's buzzing West End and Soho to visit the ever popular Covent Garden plus Leicester Square, the Trocadero, Carnaby Street and Hyde Park.
 

A street entertainer at Covent Garden in London
The first stop of our London visit was Covent Garden where we found plenty of street entertainers keeping the crowds entertained.  The guy here with the orange Mohican was handing out knighthoods!

A busy Covent Garden
Covent Garden was buzzing with plenty of people milling about in the early spring sunshine, unsurprising given all the bars, restaurants, theatres, street performers, the Royal Opera House and...

The shopping complex in London's Covent Garden
...shops.  And didn't Belinda just love all the specialist shops here inside Covent Garden's covered area!  Check our tourist resources for more on the places...

Covent Garden street performer juggling
...we visited in London.  Here's another street performer at Covent Garden, this one balancing on a unicycle and juggling, multi-tasking indeed!

Leicester Square in London's West End
A short walk via Chinatown and we were at Leicester Square - the centre of London's vibrant West End entertainment industry and home to many well-known theatres and their associated shows and musicals.  Many areas in and around the West End and Soho were within easy walking distance so our...

The London Trocadero with its many escalators
...next stop was the London Trocadero, a shopping and entertainment complex full of whizzing escalators going in all directions.  Moving on...

Carnaby Street in London's Soho
...via Regent Street we explored Soho's Carnaby Street, famous for the fashions of swinging London in the 60s - and still buzzing today.  Groovy!

London Underground, or The Tube
The sprawling London Underground, often called 'The Tube', has 275 stations across 12 subway lines and a complex information system.  We bought a one-day travel card that included main line travel and the tube.  Our resources page has handy travel websites, both within London and elsewhere in the UK.

At an entrance to Hyde Park
After the hustle and bustle London's West End and Soho we headed to the more tranquil Hyde Park; this city park green space hosts many events throughout the year within its 350 acres.

The Serpentine in London's Hyde Park
We walked to the southern end of Hyde Park and then along the length of the Serpentine.  Despite the by now indifferent weather there were plenty of people hiring boats on the huge lake.

At the Princess Diana Memorial in Hyde Park
No, Mike isn't constipated, just as we took this picture at the Princess Diana Memorial in Hyde Park, the heavens opened and gave us a drenching!

Rainbow over the Serpentine and Hyde Park
Walking along the other side of the Serpentine we observed this beautiful rainbow over Hyde Park, unfortunately our photo doesn't really do it justice.

Other London visits include: Shakespeare Globe Theatre, Tower of London, London Eye and Tower Bridge.