Royal Opera House
Two theatres burned down on this Bow Street site before the third one stuck — now home to both the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet.
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The 1858 auditorium survived the £213-million 1997-99 rebuild that replaced over half the complex, so you sit in original fabric while the public spaces around it are new.
What to look for
- Enzo Plazzotta's 'Young Dancer' statue on the Bow Street frontage out front
- Paul Hamlyn Hall, the iron-and-glass former flower-market building, now the atrium with a champagne bar and restaurant
- Four tiers of boxes and balconies plus the amphitheatre gallery in the 2,256-seat, Grade I-listed auditorium
It's on Bow Street in Covent Garden (WC2), a short walk from the market piazza.
Royal Opera House is one of 40 sights worth the detour in London, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the London pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in London
- British MuseumThe room where a dead language got its voice back — and you walk in for free.
- Buckingham PalaceThe balcony where a whole country turns up to watch a family wave — with 775 rooms behind it.
- Westminster AbbeyNearly every English monarch since 1066 has been crowned on the same worn patch of floor.
- Big BenThe clang in a thousand establishing shots comes from a cracked bell that's rung slightly off-key since 1859.
- Tower of LondonWilliam the Conqueror's keep turned royal prison, where two queens lost their heads and the Crown Jewels still sit under guard.
- Tower BridgeA Victorian drawbridge dressed as a Gothic castle, its roadway still splitting open for passing ships.