Top 5 Things to Do in Covent Garden with the Family
- Jul 15
- 4 min read
We're a couple of minutes off the Piazza, so we've watched a lot of families work out what to do with an afternoon here. Most of it is walkable, some of it's free, and the theatre is the best in the country. Here are five.
1. London Transport Museum
The best thing in Covent Garden for kids, and it's right in the Piazza, in the old Victorian flower market building.
London Transport Museum covers two hundred years of how London moves: horse-drawn omnibuses, the world's first underground steam train, trolleybuses, Routemasters, the Elizabeth line. The bit that actually lands with children is that they can get in it. Sit in a bus cab and pretend to drive. Take a turn on the Northern line simulator. There's a play zone called All Aboard for the little ones, and a stamper trail that keeps them moving through the galleries.
The ticketing is unusual and worth understanding. Under-18s go free — they just need a free timed ticket booked with yours. Adults buy what’s effectively an annual pass, so one ticket gets you unlimited daytime entry for twelve months. If you’re local, or back in London twice a year, that changes the maths completely.
Give it two to three hours. Longer if the play zone gets its hooks in.
2. The street performers
Free, outside, and older than almost everything else here. The first record of street entertainment on the Piazza is from 1662, when Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary about a marionette show featuring a character called Punch. That's Punch and Judy, and it started here.
Three centuries on, it's still going. The West Piazza in front of St Paul's Church is the big pitch — juggling, bed of nails, someone on a ten-foot unicycle. There's a covered pitch with bench seating at the north-east corner of the Market Building, better if you've got small ones who need to sit. And the opera singers work the lower courtyard.
One thing people don't know: performers have to audition for a pitch. It isn't a free-for-all. They don't get paid though, so tip if you stayed for the whole act.
3. A West End show
Covent Garden is theatreland, and the family shows are on our doorstep.
The Lion King has been at the Lyceum on Wellington Street since 1999 and is still the best first theatre trip a child can have — the puppetry does the work, so a five-year-old gets it even if the plot goes over their head.
Official guidance is 6 and up. Matilda is at the Cambridge Theatre in Seven Dials, 2 hours 40, ages 6 and up, and under-4s aren't admitted. If your child knows the book, that's the one.
Also nearby: My Neighbour Totoro at the Gillian Lynne, Hercules at Drury Lane, and Paddington at the Savoy, which is about the only West End show that really works for under-5s.
Two practical things. Book a 2.30pm matinee rather than an evening — it's cheaper, and nobody melts down at 10pm. And ask at the door for a booster cushion. They're free at most West End theatres and first come, first served, so get there early.
4. Seven Dials and Neal's Yard
Free, and about ten minutes north. Seven Dials is the junction where seven streets meet around a sundial pillar, and the streets running off it are the good bit — independent shops, and Seven Dials Market if the group can't agree on lunch. Neal's Yard is the courtyard everyone photographs: a small square of painted buildings in about four colours, tucked behind Monmouth Street.
It's a twenty-minute walk that fills a gap between two bookings. Good for teenagers who've had enough of museums.
5. Somerset House
Ten minutes down the Strand, and the Somerset House courtyard is free to walk into.
What you get depends on when you come. In summer the fountains run in the middle of the courtyard and children get soaked in them, which is either the highlight of the day or a laundry problem. In winter it's one of London's best ice rinks. The rest of the year it's usually an art installation, and there's a proper family programme worth checking.
Check the site before you go — the courtyard gets taken over by events, so the fountains aren't always on.
Worth a look too
Three more. The Royal Opera House runs Family Sundays for ages 3 to 10 — singing, dance, stage combat demonstrations — plus free lunchtime recitals if you want the building without the ticket. The Bow Street Police Museum sits on the site of the old Bow Street Magistrates' Court and tells the story of the Bow Street Runners, London's first police force. And Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery are a ten-minute walk, both free.
Then eat: Crust Bros Covent Garden
We're on Bedford Street, two minutes from the Piazza and a few more from most of the theatres. Neapolitan pizza, sharing plates, and something to dip your crust in.
The kids menu is easy. A 7-inch Margherita or a Giant Meatball in tomato sauce with crispy potatoes, both from £7.50, with a drink included — apple, orange or house lemonade. Toppings £1 each. Gelato after at £1 a scoop.
For everyone else: pizzas from £12.50, sharing plates for the middle of the table, and the Crispy Crushed Potatoes with whipped garlic feta, which you'll only find at this restaurant. Tiramisu Bomba after. There's a proper non-alcoholic list too — a Rhubarb Spritz, an alcohol-free G&T — if you're the one driving home.
Got a curtain to make? The pre-theatre menu is £25 a head, from 3–6pm daily, minimum two. Tell us your time on arrival and we'll pace it so you make it.
Walk-ins welcome, or book a table.
Make a day of it
London Transport Museum first, while everyone's fresh. Out into the Piazza for a street performer and some lunch. Seven Dials and Neal's Yard in the early afternoon. Pizza at ours around five. Then a 7.30 curtain, five minutes away.
