London City Guide

Neal’s Yard – Organic, Health & Beauty Shops

Neal’s Yard
Where? Neal’s Yard, Entrances in Monmouth Street and Shorts Garden, Covent Garden Time required? A typical visit is 10 mins Parking: Nearby car parks Buses: 14, 19, 24, 29, 38, 134, 176, 242 Bus fares Trains: The closest station is Covent Garden Piccadilly Other nearby stations: Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road Train fares

Craig’s review… The first time you wander down here you’ll find yourself in a world of tangerine, lemon and lime green paint. It’s just a tiny little courtyard really, but all of the shops are painted in ridiculously happy colours and it always reminds me of those tribes they find in the Amazon rainforest, staring up at the airplanes in the National Geographic. Neal’s Yard is exactly the same as that (sort of) but instead of neanderthals from 10,000 BC it’s full of hippies from the 1960s.

But where is everybody today? It’s totally deserted this morning.

I’m trying to cast my mind back to the last time I saw a hippie… and I mean a real hippy. Do they even exist anymore? I’m thinking of those skinny dudes who smoke stinky cigarettes and strum sunflower songs on their acoustic guitar. The kind of groovy dudes who lived in San Francisco. I haven’t seen a genuine one for ages – maybe all of that free love and drugs wiped them out. Either that or they’re still in bed. I don’t suppose many hippies get out of bed before noon.

Organic food, health and beauty shops

The shops in Neal’s Yard are pretty hippy, too… they’re all health and beauty shops selling coconut this and avocado that. They sell food from Peru, Timbuktu, and stuff sourced from the mountains, volcanos, caves and waves… they’ve got seaweed to eat, nettle shampoo, bamboo… put it this way: it’s not the kind of place where you can do your weekly shop. Not unless you want to eat lentils and dried peas all week.

Worth a visit? Value for money? n/aGood for kids? Easy to get to?

I also recommend… If you enjoy this then try Covent Garden (you can walk it in 6 mins) and Gabriel’s Wharf (walk it in 18 mins or travel from Covent Garden to Waterloo by tube)

London Squire bookThe owns city-guide.london and has spent the last decade reviewing the capital’s landmarks, attractions and hotels. His guidebook is available from Amazon

Your comments and questions

Bec I visited here last year and tried to find it again today and I couldn't find it! It took me ten minutes walking up and down the streets until I did eventually manage to find the entrance (which was well signposted, duh!) and I'm glad to say it hasn't changed a bit from how I remember it

Leave a comment