InfoBritain

Covent Garden, London

In the 1630s the Earl of Bedford asked the fashionable architect Inigo Jones to build an Italian style Piazza on land formerly owned by Westminster Abbey. This was to be England's first public square and was to combine residential buildings with arcaded shops. Charles the First gave his personal support to the scheme, a forward looking egalitarian scheme, encouraged by a king who tried and failed to save the old fashioned supremecy of the king. Unfortunately the rich people living in the square began to tire of its open nature and soon retired to private squares such as Bloomsbury Square where their privacy could be maintained. Covent Garden was left to "artistic" types.

The small fruit and vegetable market which had its home in the square began to grow, and by the ninteenth century it came to dominate the square and its buildings. The market continued until 1973, when it was moved out to Nine Elms. Today very lttle remains of Jones's original Piazza, although much of the old market has been saved by turning the area into a development of shops and restaurants.

Directions: Covent Garden is close to the Strand. From the Strand walk up Bedford Street. Click here for an interactive road and satellite map centred on Covent Garden.