Covent Garden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Covent Garden is a district in London, England, located on the easternmost parts of the City of Westminster and the southwest corner of the London Borough of Camden. The area is dominated by shopping, street performers and entertainment facilities and contains an entrance to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, which is also widely known simply as "Covent Garden", and the bustling Seven Dials area.
The area is bounded by High Holborn to the north, Kingsway to the east, the Strand to the south and Charing Cross Road to the west. Covent Garden Piazza is located in the geographical centre of the area and was the site of a flower, fruit and vegetable market from the 1500s until 1974, when the wholesale market relocated to New Covent Garden Market in Nine Elms. Nearby areas include Soho, St James's, Bloomsbury and Holborn.
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[edit] History
[edit] Roman times to the 1500s
A settlement has existed in the area since the Roman times of Londinium.
"Convent Garden" (later becoming Covent Garden as we know it today) was the name given, during the reign of King John (1199–1216), to a 40-acre (16 ha) patch in the county of Middlesex, bordered west and east by what is now St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane, and north and south by Floral Street and a line drawn from Chandos Place, along Maiden Lane and Exeter Street to the Aldwych.
In this quadrangle the Abbey or Convent of St. Peter, Westminster, maintained a large kitchen garden throughout the Middle Ages to provide its daily food. Over the next three centuries, the monks' old "convent garden" became a major source of fruit and vegetables in London and was managed by a succession of leaseholders by grant from the Abbot of Westminster.
This type of lease eventually led to property disputes throughout the kingdom, which Henry VIII solved in 1540 by the stroke of a pen when he dissolved the monasteries and appropriated their land.
King Henry VIII granted part of the land to Baron Russell, Lord High Admiral and, later, Earl of Bedford. In fulfilment of his father's dying wish, King Edward VI bestowed the remainder of the convent garden in 1547 to his maternal uncle, Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset who began building Somerset House on the south side of Strand the next year. When Seymour was beheaded for treason in 1552, the land once again came into royal gift, and was awarded four months later to one of those who had contributed to Seymour's downfall. Forty acres (16 ha), known as "le Covent Garden" plus "the long acre", were granted by royal patent in perpetuity to the Earl of Bedford.
[edit] 1600s to 1800s
The modern-day Covent Garden has its roots in the early 17th century when land ("the Convent's Garden") was redeveloped by Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford. The area was designed by Inigo Jones, the first and greatest of English Renaissance architects. He was inspired by late 15th century and early 16th century planned market towns known as bastides (themselves modelled on Roman colonial towns by way of nearby monasteries, of which "Convent" Garden was one). The centrepiece of the project was an arcaded piazza. The church of St Paul's, Covent Garden stood at the centre of the western side of the piazza. A market, which was originally open air, occupied the centre of the piazza.
The area rapidly became a base for market traders, and following the Great Fire of London of 1666 which destroyed 'rival' markets towards the east of the city, the market became the most important in the country. Exotic items from around the world were carried on boats up the River Thames and sold on from Covent Garden. The first mention of a Punch and Judy show in Britain was recorded by diarist Samuel Pepys, who saw such a show in the square in May 1662. Today Covent Garden is the only part of London licensed for street entertainment with performers having to undertake auditions for the Market's management and representatives of the performers' union and signing up to timetabled slots. In 1830 a grand building reminiscent of the Roman baths such as those found in Bath was built to provide a more permanent trading centre.
On 7 April 1779, the pavement outside the Covent Garden playhouse was the scene of the notorious murder of Martha Ray, mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, by her admirer the Rev. James Hackman, who was hanged twelve days later.[1]
[edit] Modern-day period
In 1913, responding to political feeling against large holdings of real property, and wishing to diversify his investment portfolio into less politically sensitive fields, the Duke of Bedford agreed to sell the Covent Garden Estate to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley for £2 million. The following year Mallaby-Deeley sold his option to buy to the pill manufacturer Sir Joseph Beecham for £250,000. After delays caused by the First World War and the death of Sir Thomas, the sale was finalised in 1918, the purchasers being Sir Thomas's two sons, Sir Thomas and Henry. The transaction included the market, 231 other properties, and sundry other rights. The property was part of Beecham Estates and Pills Limited from 1924 to 1928 and from 1928 it was owned by a successor company called Covent Garden Properties Company Limited, owned by the Beechams and other private investors. This new company sold some properties at Covent Garden, while becoming active in property investment in other parts of London. In 1962 the bulk of the remaining properties in the Covent Garden area, including the market, were sold to the newly established government-owned Covent Garden Authority for £3,925,000.[2]
By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion in the surrounding area had reached such a level that the use of the square as a market, which required increasingly large lorries for deliveries and distribution, was becoming unsustainable. The whole area was threatened with complete redevelopment. Following a public outcry, in 1973 the Home Secretary, Robert Carr, gave dozens of buildings around the square listed building status, preventing redevelopment. The following year the market finally moved to a new site (called the New Covent Garden Market) about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The square languished until its central building re-opened as a shopping centre and tourist attraction in 1980. Today the shops largely sell novelty items, though street performers can be seen almost every day of the year, both on the pitches within the market, and on the West and East Piazza's/James Street outside. More serious shoppers gravitate to Long Acre, which has a range of clothes shops and boutiques, and Neal Street, noted for its large number of shoe shops. London's Transport Museum and the side entrance to the Royal Opera House box office and other facilities are also located on the Piazza.
In August 2007, Covent Garden launched the UK's first food Night Market. Fresh produce from over 35 different stalls included Neal's Yard's specialist cheeses, Spore Boys' mushroom sandwiches, Gourmet Candy Company, Ginger Pig sausages and Burnt Sugar fudge. The aim of the Night Market was to bring Covent Garden back to its roots as the "Larder of London". Organisers are hoping to make it a permanent event in 2008 as part of a wider initiative to regenerate interest in the Covent Garden area.
Covent Garden Market and Piazza was bought by Capco in August 2006 for £421 million[3]. In March 2007 Capco also acquired the shops located under the Royal Opera House.[4] The complete Covent Garden Estate owned by Capco consists of 550,000 sq.ft. and has a market value of £650 million.[3]
Covent Garden Market re-opened as a retail centre in 1980, after the produce market was moved to its current location in Nine Elms. Street entertainment at Covent Garden was first mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary in 1662.[5] Today Covent Garden is the only part of London licensed for street entertainment with performers having to undertake auditions for the Market's management and representatives of the performers' union and signing up to timetabled slots.
Currently performers operate in a number of venues around the market, including the North Hall, West Piazza, and South Hall Courtyard. The courtyard space is dedicated to classical music only. There are street performances at Covent Garden Market every day of the year, except Christmas Day. Shows run throughout the day and are 30-40 minutes in length.
In March 2008, Capco proposed to reduce street performances by approximately 50%. In the Courtyard, shows currently run back to back from 10:30am to 7:00pm, with short breaks in between each show, allowing for two shows each hour. Under the new proposal, performances would be cut to one 30 minute show each hour. The musicians and performers staged a demonstration "busk" in the Piazza agains these cuts on 27th March with the opera singer, Lesley Garrett who is supporting their campaign[6]. They have organised a petition which so far has over 5,000 signatures including Ken Livingstone, Brian Paddick, Vasko Vassilev, Brian Eno and Victoria Wood.
[edit] Royal Opera House
In the 1960s an extension to the rear of the Royal Opera House had somewhat improved its facilities, but as time passed, it became clear that a major remodelling was needed. In 1975 the government gave adjacent land for the modernisation, refurbishment and extension of the house and, by 1995, with the availability of National Lottery money, significant funds had been raised. A major reconstruction of the building took place between 1996 and 2000, involving the demolition of almost the whole site (except for the auditorium itself), including several adjacent buildings, to make room for a major increase in the overall scale of the complex. In terms of volume, well over half of the complex is new.
The new opera house has greatly improved technical, rehearsal, office and educational facilities, a new studio theatre, the Linbury Theatre, and much more public space. The inclusion of the adjacent old Floral Hall, long a part of the old Covent Garden Market but in general disrepair for many years, into the actual opera house created a new and extensive public gathering place. The venue is now claimed by the ROH to be the most modern theatre facility in Europe.
[edit] St Paul's Church
In 2005 the path leading up to the front of St Paul's Church was given plaques similar to those in Leicester Square which became known as the Avenue of Stars. The plaques quickly deteriorated and only lasted a year before being removed.
[edit] Transport and locale
[edit] Location in Context
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[edit] Also nearby
[edit] Nearest stations
- Covent Garden (Piccadilly Line)
- Charing Cross (Northern Line, Bakerloo Line, National Rail)
- Leicester Square (Piccadilly Line, Northern Line)
- Holborn (Piccadilly Line, Central Line)
- Embankment (Circle Line, District Line, Northern Line and Bakerloo Line)
[edit] Cultural connections
The marketplace and Royal Opera House were memorably brought together in the opening of George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion, where Professor Henry Higgins is waiting for a cab to take him home from the opera when he comes across Eliza Doolittle selling flowers in the market.
In the mid-1950s, before he directed such films as If.... and O Lucky Man!, Lindsay Anderson directed a short film about the daily activities of the Covent Garden market called Every Day Except Christmas. It shows 12 hours in the life of the market and market people, now long gone from the area, but it also reflects three centuries of tradition in the operation of the daily fruit and vegetable market.
Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film, Frenzy, likewise takes place amongst the pubs and fruit markets of Covent Garden. The serial sex killer in Frenzy is a local fruit vendor, and the film features several blackly comic moments suggesting a metaphorical correlation between the consumption of food and the act of rape–murder. Hitchcock was the son of a retail greengrocer in North-East London and would have known the area; and so, the film was partly conceived (and marketed) as a semi-nostalgic return to familiar streets from the director's childhood.
[edit] Streets
Neal Street, named after Thomas Neale (1641-1699) who designed the Seven Dials development and set up the first central postal service in the American colonies, was home to the punk club The Roxy in 1977[7]. It is the centre of a fashion-focused mid-market retailing district which caters mainly for young people[8].
[edit] Bibliography
- Boursnell, Clive, Covent Garden Market, London: Studio Vista, 1977, ISBN 0-289-70806-0 (mainly author's photographs of the Market activities and people)
[edit] References
- ^ Rawlings, Philip, Hackman, James (bap. 1752, d. 1779), in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) and online at Hackman, James (subscription required), accessed 16 March 2008
- ^ Survey of London, Volume 36, pp. 48–52.
- ^ a b Covent Garden, Selfridges style. Property Week (2007-11-02). Retrieved on 2008-03-31.
- ^ CapCo grows in Covent Garden. Shopping-centre.co.uk (2007-03-26). Retrieved on 2008-03-31.
- ^ COVENT GARDEN AND THE STORY OF PUNCH AND JUDY. CoventGardenLife.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-31.
- ^ Buskers fear 'thin end of wedge'. BBC News Online (2008-03-27). Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
- ^ Where the Roxy Club was: Neal Street in 2001
- ^ http://london.openguides.org/index.cgi?Neal_Street
[edit] External links
- Covent Garden volume of the Survey of London online (published 1970). A very detailed architectural history.
- Covent Garden Community Association
- Covent Garden landscape architecture
- Covent Garden Street Performers Association
- Covent Garden Live
- Photos of Covent Garden in 1973
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| Historic covered |
Old Billingsgate · Covent Garden · Leadenhall · Smithfield · Old Spitalfields |
| Noted |
Bermondsey · Borough · Brick Lane · Camden Lock · Camden Passage · Columbia Road · Covent Garden · Greenwich · Petticoat Lane · Portobello Road |
| Local |
Battersea High Street · Berwick Street · Broadway · Brixton · Chapel · Chrisp Street · Croydon Farmers · Deptford · East Street · Exmouth · Hildreth Street · Kingston · Kingston Monday · Leather Lane · Lewisham · Lower Marsh · Merton Abbey Mills · Northcote Road · North End Road · Queen's · Rathbone · Romford · Ridley Road · Shepherd's Bush · Strutton Ground · Surrey Street · Tooting · Upmarket and The Backyard · Walthamstow · The Waste |
| Modern wholesale | |
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| Districts |
Belsize Park · Bloomsbury · Brondesbury · Camden Town · Chalk Farm · Covent Garden · Dartmouth Park · Fitzrovia · Fortune Green · Frognal · Gospel Oak · Hampstead · Highgate · Holborn · Kentish Town · Kilburn · Kings Cross · Primrose Hill · Saffron Hill · St. Pancras · South Hampstead · Swiss Cottage · Tufnell Park · West Hampstead |
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| Attractions | ||
| Street markets | ||
| Constituencies | ||
| Parks and open spaces in Camden | ||
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| Districts |
Bayswater · Belgravia · Covent Garden · Fitzrovia · Holborn · Hyde Park · Knightsbridge · Lisson Grove · Maida Vale (including Little Venice) · Mayfair · Marylebone · Millbank · Paddington · Pimlico · Queen's Park · St. James's · St. John's Wood · Soho (including Chinatown) · Victoria · Westbourne Green · Westminster |
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| Attractions | ||
| Royal Parks | ||
| Constituencies | ||
| Parks and open spaces in Westminster | ||
