Covent Garden: then and now
It wasn't always fashion flagships and gawping tourists, y'know. In fact, travel back as little as 40 years and the West End area now known for its shops, museums and theatres becomes all but unrecognisable…
Where once were fruit sellers and prostitutes (enough to necessitate an annually published directory with a print run of 8,000 in the late eighteenth century), the streets of Covent Garden are now a hotbed of tourists, shoppers and the occasional gold-painted twit. Why the shift? The departure of the central market in 1974 saw the cart-dragging merchants on their way, with the vacant space divvied up between commercial developers and cultural institutions.
All of the images below were taken by photographer and Covent Garden historian Clive Boursnell, who recreated scenes from his archive of images from the late '60s and '70s for his book 'Covent Garden: Then & Now'
Use the slider handles on the images below to flick between past and present. Got an old photo of London we should re-shoot for our next gallery? Tweet at @TimeOutLondon.
Piazza from James Street
Entertainers in east piazza
North piazza
Central arcade
Urban Outfitters, Earlham Street
Tube station and James Street
Paul Hamlyn Hall
Fossil, James Street
James Street
Pictures from 'Covent Garden: Then & Now' by Clive Boursnell, published by Frances Lincoln at £14.99.
More then and now galleries
East End pubs: then and now
As our interactive gallery illustrates, times are tough for London's cockney boozers
Tube stations: then and now
Travel back in time with our interactive gallery and see what the London Underground looked like back in the day
Soho: then and now
The times, they are a-changin', and nowhere is it more apparent than in the West End's lively grid of food, booze and vice
More to explore
Snap up exclusive discounts in London
Time Out's handpicked deals — hurry, they won't be around for long...