Covent Garden nun

A reference to the brothels and prostitutes that were once common in and around Covent Garden in London.

Covent Garden nun (plural Covent Garden nuns)

1. (archaic, British slang) A prostitute.

• nun (“prostitute”), see also Thesaurus:prostitute

• Covent Garden abbess, Covent Garden ague

• “Covent Garden nun” in Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, volume I (A–K), Edinburgh: The Ballantyne Press, 1889–1890, pages 275–276.
• Farmer, John Stephen (1891) Slang and Its Analogues‎, volume 2, page 193