History of London: Covent Garden
Entertainment, Shopping And Tourist Hotspot for Centuries
Covent Garden is a popular tourist spot, with its markets, cafes and theatres, but few visitors know its fascinating history. From quiet beginnings, it's seen two world wars and countless upheavals. Much of its history is buried under ancient cobblestones, and it came close to destruction in the 1970s.
Saxon, Roman and Mediaeval Times
Covent Garden lies outside the walls of Roman London, or Londinium, but it was already a market in Saxon times. Archaeologists have found a large trading port, running along Fleet Street, Strand and Aldwych (whose name means "old port".) Lundenwic was abandoned in the 9th century AD as Viking raids up the Thames made it a dangerous place to live.
For eight centuries Convent Garden was agricultural land. It was named for its next owners, the Convent of Westminster Abbey. Early records suggest it was the monks' burial ground. In 1552 it passed to the Earl of Bedford, but continued as pasture.
Developing Britain's First Public Square
1632 saw a major urban development - the first public square in Britain. The Earl of Bedford asked architect Inigo Jones to design a gracious public space surrounded by up-market houses. King Charles I supported the scheme. The surrounding streets were named in homage - King Street, Henrietta Street (for Charles's Queen) and Bedford Street - but the square itself kept its old name.
Jones had been to Italy and wanted to create an Italianate piazza in London. His regular grid arrangement of streets and open spaces revolutionised British architecture. Unfortunately, the aristocratic buyers of his houses soon tired of the lack of privacy in a public space. As canny imitators built private, gated squares, the rich abandoned Covent Garden to the lower orders - artists, tradesmen and performers.
Market Traders Move In
The famous fruit and vegetable market, setting for the opening scenes of the movie My Fair Lady, started with a few traders in 1649. In 1666 the Great Fire destroyed all the City's markets and Covent Garden boomed. Expansion continued until the market occupied most of Jones's classical Piazza. His houses were gradually torn down and replaced, and his beautiful church of St. Paul was destroyed by fire in 1795, but his street layouts remain, and John Hardwick rebuilt the church to his original plan.
Charles II sparked an increase in theater building in the area by issuing letters patent to allow Sir William Davenant and Thomas Killigrew to present spoken drama in London. The Cockpit Theater in Drury Lane, now demolished, was their first venue; Davenant set up in Lincoln's Inn fields in 1661 and Killigrew built the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1663. As performers and tradesmen moved in, the area moved down-market, but the Bedford family fortunes prospered and the Earldom was promoted to Ducal status.
Modern London Saves the Market
In 1830 the Duke of Bedford erected market buildings to which the wealthy and fashionable came to buy flowers or observe the riff-raff. The digging uncovered ancient bones, perhaps remains of the monks who gave the area its name. The main building survives today, and the Flower Market was added in 1872.
Covent Garden became the center of the nation's fruit and vegetable trade. London became more and more congested. By the 1940s it was obvious a new site was needed, but it was not until 1973 that the market moved out of town to its current location in Nine Elms.
A vigorous local campaign prevented the demolition of Covent Garden. Instead it was renovated. Inigo Jones' plans and the Duke of Bedford's market survived. Now, as one of London's foremost shopping areas, it attracts both locals and tourists, and is still home to artists and performers.
Sources and further reading
Survey of London volume 35 - Hermione Hobhouse (ed), pub. Continuum, Athlone, 2004
Middle Saxon London - Malcolm, Bowsher & Cowie, Museum of London, London, 2003
Covent Garden Market - Clive Boursnell, Studio Vista, London, 1977
In and Around Covent Garden magazine, pub. In & Around Limited, London, 1992-
