Alternative shopping in Covent Garden: Discover the gems

At Pop Vintage Boutique you can get the Grease look. Photo credit: Katharina Kruppa

Just off Shaftesbury Avenue, the area of Earlham and Monmouth Street is a paradise for the alternative shopper: From vintage to crazy to casual, the small shops there offer everything but high street fashion.

Note to girls: Please don‘t be astonished when the perfumed shopkeeper in the tight top tells you the women‘s section is to be found at the very back of the shop, or even in the cellar. Guys, most of the clothes sold in this area are designed for you.

Vintage chic

From the window of Pop Vintage Boutique (6 Monmouth St) purple letters scream:  „Don‘t follow fashion, buy something already out of date!“. Inside, an oasis of bright, colorful 60ies and 70ies stuff is waiting for vintage lovers. Chinese tourists are trying on huge sunglasses and polka-dotted dresses. When you come out, you might find yourself looking like you just jumped out of the Grease movie.

The Loft is a good place to get designer bargains. Photo credit: Katharina Kruppa

Just down the street, The Loft (35 Monmouth St) offers designer clothes for less. The small shop is packed with shirts and jackets for guys and skirts, tops and shoes for girls (in the cellar). If you are lucky, you might grab yourself a bargain with a label.

If you don‘t fancy going on holiday this year but want to buy a dress for £600 instead, you might wanna check out Dino‘s designs at Dar & Dar (53 Goodge St). Crazy colors and even crazier prices.

So colourful it makes you hungry. Photo credit: Katharina Kruppa

If you are still looking for a trendy bracelet or neclace to finish your outfit, why not design it youself? At London Bead Shop in Earlham Street you can put together your own accessoire out of hundreds of (plastic) pearls.

Sweet delights

There's a three whip line ot the Monmouth Coffee. Photo credit: Katharina Kruppa

Looking for a place to rest? Follow the smell of coffee to the tiny shop of the Monmouth coffee company. The queue trails out on the street, but the coffee is worth waiting for. Inside, you can not only indulge in almond croissants or brownies, but taste the company‘s self-roasted, freshly grounded coffee or espresso. The prices are average for the area, but seats are limited. If you want to stay in, you might find youself cramed into one of the three table boths, chatting to a stranger sharing your bench.

For a sweet treat, go to Candy Cakes (26 Goodge Street) where chocolat charmers, toffee fuge or blueberry bursts almost yell ‘eat me!‘.

Colourful - and edible. Photo credit: Katharina Kruppa

Show tunes

If you‘ve already got a tune in your head when you think Hair, Oliver or Cats then you might want to check out Dresscircle (59 Goodge St). It calls itself the showbiz shop and probably stocks every musical album or DVD ever released. Or if you always wanted a Phantom mask or a Legally Blonde bracelet, this is the place to go.

Ineivtably, you will get caught in the stream of tourists and led back into the Covent Garden Piazza, where street performers and singers are at their best. Sometimes, if you get lucky, some of the performers inside the Market Hall sing a showtune or two. After all, this is the heart of London‘s theatreland.