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- In 1998, the London Development Agency purchased Covent Garden Market with the intention of redeveloping it into a mixed-use retail and office space. However, following a public consultation, it was agreed that the market should remain. In 2003, ownership of the market passed to Transport for London, who still owns it today.
www.londonkensingtonguide.com/covent-garden-market/
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May 26, 2024 · The autumn of 2024 marks the date, 50 years ago, that Covent Gardens’s fruit, flower and vegetable market moved to Vauxhall, leaving the central piazza unused and the future of the entire quarter uncertain. There had been debates about the market, which had long outgrown its location, for decades.
Apr 6, 2017 · For decades Covent Garden was condemned as an unsuitable place for a market given the congestion it faced, but it wasn’t until 1974 when it was finally moved to a 60 acre site on disused railway land at Nine Elms in Vauxhall.
- Location
- History
- Formation of The Piazza
- St Paul’s Church
- Market Traders
- Less Salubrious
- Street Performers and Theatre
- First London Police
- Pubs
- The Market Building
Covent Garden is a sprawling central London neighbourhood reaching Charing Cross Road in the west, Shaftesbury Avenue in the north, High Holbornin the east and Strand in the south. Long Acre is the main thoroughfare, running north-east from St Martin’s Lane to Drury Lane. Shelton Street, running parallel to the north of Long Acre, marks the London ...
The Romans left the walled City of London by 400 AD and the area was abandoned for some time. Gradually the remaining inhabitants of Londiniumreturned to a life of agriculture producing food for their families. Life was the same in Covent Garden and other urban areas with thatched roof homes and livestock kept in the open fields.
It was Francis Russell (1587–1641), the 4th Earl of Bedford, who commissioned the royal architect Inigo Jones (1573–1652) to design a square with houses“fit for the [habitations] of Gentlemen and men with ability”. (Inigo Jones is considered to have been the first significant architect of the early modern period.) The Earl had won approval to devel...
Built in 1633, St. Paul’s Churchwas included for the resident aristocrats. It is said that to keep the costs down for the church, the Earl requested nothing more elaborate than a barn. “You shall have the finest barn in London”, replied Jones. At that time almost all churches in London and elsewhere in England had existed since at least the Middle ...
The first written reference to “the new market in Covent Garden” in the Piazza dates from 1654. The local residents were all wealthy tenants but we can imagine their servants being sent to the market to buy supplies. Being a new neighbourhood, Covent Garden was relatively unscathed by the 1665 great plague and the 1666 Great Fire of London only aff...
This change from a quiet place to stroll with aristocratic neighbours to a busy produce market changed the character of the neighbourhood. By the latter part of the seventeenth century, the grandees were moving further westwards to more gentile environments. In London society, a respectable address was everything. Two theatres in the area (see belo...
You may well have seen the street performers outside St Paul’s Church. They are there every day except Christmas Day. These performers have to audition to get a coveted slot here and usually attract a large crowd. Street performances have long been a tradition at Covent Garden. The seventeenth-century diarist Samuel Pepysrecorded the first mention ...
The Royal Opera House is on Bow Street and the ‘Bow Street Runners’ were the first professional police force. Organised in London by magistrate and author Henry Fielding in 1749, these ‘police’ were replaced in 1829 with the formation of the Metropolitan Police. The Bow Street Magistrates’ Court was built in 1880 and there was much courtroom drama ...
Possibly the oldest pub in the area is the Lamb & Flagon Rose Street. The first mention of a pub on this site is in 1772, when it was known as The Coopers Arms (the name changed to The Lamb & Flag in 1833). The pub had a reputation for bare-knuckle prize fights in the early 19th century gaining the nickname “Bucket of Blood”. I was working in offic...
In 1828, Whig politician John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, flush with money from the sale of land near The Strand, petitioned for a government bill “for the improvement and regulation of Covent Garden Market”. This allowed him to commission Charles Fowler to build a neo-classical market building. The market opened in May 1830 with clear designated...
Jul 28, 2022 · Bombs fell on Covent Garden during World War Two, yet most structures were unharmed. Traffic congestion at the end of the 1960s prompted the market to relocate to the New Covent Garden Market in 1974 at Nine Elms, and the original market’s central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980. Covent Garden today
- Amy Irvine
In the 1970s, plans to demolish and redevelop Covent Garden were stopped following a vigorous campaign by local residents and in 1980 Covent Garden re-opened as Europe's first speciality shopping centre following a five-year renovation.
Jan 27, 2023 · Up until the 1970s, Covent Garden was full of small market stalls where businesses would sell their wares. From flowers and fruits and vegetables to sacks of potatoes and flour, traders would gather from all over to sell their goods.
Feb 15, 2024 · In 1974, Covent Garden market moved to Nine Elms in Battersea which became known as New Covent Garden Market. But the original Covent Garden site was redeveloped and the Victorian market building continues to host an array of shops, market stalls, cafes and bars.
