Covent Garden is one of London’s coolest shopping areas, known for one-off boutiques and intriguingly odd-ball specialist shops – but visit in a hurry and you may well miss the best. Serious shoppers ignore the picturesque old market place, leaving it to the ever-present crowds of anorak-clad tourists, and head straight for nearby Floral Street. It was Paul Smith who put Floral Street on the map – his quirky emporia for men, women and children take up most of one side of the street – attracting other big-name designers such as Nicole Farhi, and the interesting mix of smaller shops that now lines the alleys leading up to Long Acre. For organic food, excellent herbal cosmetics and one of England’s very best cheese shops try Neal’s Yard, a tiny haven within Covent Garden that’s kept the laid-back feel the whole place used to have. For the most part, though, this relaxed atmosphere has gone, replaced by urban bustle and frantic shopping, fuelled by the area’s rapidly increasing number of funky and hip boutiques.