COVENT GARDEN MARKET

A Skelding Summary

Covent Garden derives its name from an old medieval Benedictine Convent Garden or pasture land of the Convent of St Peter at Westminster. During the Henrician Reformation of the 1540s this church land was confiscated by the Crown which occupied the site. The land passed to the Earl of Bedford whose descendent the fourth Earl commissioned Inigo Jones to design houses there "fit for the habitations of gentleman" in 1630 to 1633.

This Jones did, in the Palladian style of architecture common in Italy, houses occupying three sides of the piazza or market square. The piazza was not an immediate success - many of the wealthy tenants being horrified by the notion of commoners and the general public congregating well within their view. As such, the piazza was gradually allowed to fall into disrepair - residential buildings frequently demolished to make way for stalls and shops.

By the 1750s the area became what was once quaintly known as "a den of iniquity" and exercised the minds of the London authorities alarmed the the prevalence of prostitution and robbery in the area. In the words of the local magistrate John Fielding - "One would imagine that all the Prostitutes in the Kingdom had picked upon the rendez-vous". Indeed it was this disgust and fear of crime and its threat that prompted the middle and upper classes to form vigilante groups and militias which were the direct precursors to the Metropolitan Police formed in1829.

Covent Garden market was for more than 300 years the principal fruit, flower and vegetable market in London. It was established in 1670 and by 1737 with the closure of the Stocks Market in the City of London, had claimed ascendancy. The market grew, yet was unregulated - forcing legislation in the early 1800s to combat overcrowding and malpractice.

The Tuscan columns and arcades that still stand to this day were built for this purpose - and were completed by Charles Fowler in 1830. As time progressed other markets were added such as Floral Hall (1860) the Flower Market (1871) and the Jubilee Market (1904) finally the fruit and vegetable stalls relocated in 1974, the Flower Market now hosting the Transport and Theatre museums.