 Covent Garden is served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station on the corner of Long Acre and James Street . The station was designed by Leslie Green and opened by Great Northern , Piccadilly and Brompton Railway on 11 April 1907 , four months after services on the rest of the line began operating on 15 December 1906 . The station is one of the few stations in Central London for which platform access is only by lift or stairs . Until improvements in 2007 , due to high passenger numbers ( 16 million annually ) , entry to the station was sometimes restricted on busy days to reduce congestion on the platforms . The distance from Covent Garden to Leicester Square at less than 300 yards is London 's shortest tube journey . Stations just outside the area include the Charing Cross tube station and Charing Cross railway station , Leicester Square tube station , and Holborn tube station . While there is only one bus route in Covent Garden itself — the <unk> , which uses Catherine Street as a terminus , just to the east of Covent Garden square — there are over 30 routes which pass close by , mostly on the Strand or Kingsway . 
