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Covent Garden is an area of central London most noted for its flower, fruit and vegetable market (now moved to Nine Elms, Vauxhall) and for the Royal Opera House to its north. 'Covent Garden' is properly the area of London bounded by High Holborn, Kingsway, The Strand and Charing Cross Roads. However that phrase is commonly used to describe the open area at its centre built from the original market for which 'Covent Garden Piazza' is the proper name.
A settlement has existed in the area since the Roman times of Londinium.
Covent Garden was the name given, during the reign of King John ( 1199 - 1256), to a 40 acre (160,000 m²) patch in the county of Middlesex, bordered west and east by which 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 King 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 John Russell, Baron Russell, Lord High Admiral, and later Earl of Bedford. In fulfilment of his father's dying wish, King Edward VIEdward VI ( 12 October 1537 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. Edward, the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty, was England's first Protestant ruler. Although his father and predecessor, Henry VIII, h, bestowed the remainder of the convent garden in 1547Events January 16 Grand Duke Ivan IV of Muscovy becomes the first Tsar of Russia. January 28 Edward VI succeeds his father Henry VIII as King of England. February 20 Edward VI of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey March 31 Henry II succeeds his fathe to his maternal uncle, Edward Seymour, Duke of SomersetEdward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c. 1506 1552) was Lord Protector of England in the period between the death of King Henry VIII in 1547 and his own indictment in 1549. He was born in about 1506, the eldest brother of Jane Seymour, who would become Ki who began building Somerset HouseSomerset House is a large building situated on the south side of The Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William on the South side of The Strand the next year. When he was beheaded for treason in 1552Events April War between Henry II of France and Emperor Charles V. Henry invades Lorraine and captures Toul, Metz, and Verdun. October December Unsuccessful Siege of Metz by Charles V October 2 Khanate of Kazan falls to troops of Ivan IV of Russia Russia, the land came once again into royal gift, and was awarded four months later to one of those who had contributed to Seymour's downfall. Forty acres (160,000 m²), known as "le Covent Garden" plus "the long acre", were granted by royal patent in perpetuity to the Earl of Bedford.
The modern-day Covent Garden has its roots in the early seventeenth centuryCenturies: 16th century 17th century 18th century Decades: 1550s 1560s 1570s 1580s 1590s 1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s Years: 1600 1601 1602 1603 1604 1605 1606 1607 1608 1609 Events and Trends November 5, 1605 The Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Brit 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 the grand piazzas of Rome and other Italian cities and created a large open public space at the centre of the Garden.
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. 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.
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 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 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. 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 is also located on the Piazza.
The marketplace and Royal Opera House were memorably brought together in the opening of George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion, where Professor 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 a somewhat different musical tradition, Covent Garden's Neal Street was home to the famous punk club The Roxy in 1977.
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