What was Covent Garden like when you first arrived here from Tipperary in 1967?
The old market in Covent Garden was the biggest market in the world. I used to work at the White Lion (on James Street) where we had an early morning license for market stall workers, bakers, night workers and so on. You can imagine we had some real characters—weirdos, alcoholics, and freaks coming in each morning. We’d turn away as many customers as we served! How has Covent Garden changed over the years? Covent Garden has always been changing. After the market closed in 1974 the area became a ghost town for a few years until the mid- to late-seventies when a few wine bars opened. What makes Covent Garden so special? It’s a little village in the middle of London. You probably don’t realize but a lot of people live here. Their parents lived here and their grandparents lived here too. So it keeps a real local feel? Well, you may think a lot of them are as cockney-as-you-like but many people around here have Irish names. The potato famine in 1848 meant a lot of Irish moved to London to w
