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  • 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've been street performers.

  • And they would've sold roses and sung songs, sung 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 the 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 a 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.

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade.

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