Covent Garden Market

Covent Garden began as open fields, then became part of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwic in the 7th century, before falling back to farmland after the 9th century. By 1200, the land had been enclosed by the Abbot of Westminster Abbey for orchards and arable use, which is why the name evolved from “the garden of the Abbey and Convent” into “Covent Garden.” The modern story starts in 1552, when Edward VI granted the land to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford. Later, the 4th Earl asked Inigo Jones to create the square and St Paul’s Church, and Jones’s Italianate arcades helped set a model for London’s later urban squares. By 1654, a small fruit-and-vegetable market had taken root on the south side of the square, and that market soon gave the whole area its lasting identity. Over time, taverns, theatres, coffee houses, and brothels crowded in, and by the 18th century the district had a notorious reputation. …

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