This is introduction to the photographic book Goodbye Covent Garden by Ena Bodin which we reproduce here in our gallery of local artists.

by The Marquess of Tavistock

I have always been fascinated by the history of Covent Garden Market which was owned and developed by my ancestors for 350 years.

The market originally began in the Middle Ages, when the Abbots of Westminster who owned some pasture land and orchards, known as the 'Convent Garden', began to sell their surplus production to the citizens of London. As the city grew, the population created a demand for ever-increasing quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables. Farmers from the surrounding country-side began to bring their crops to the wall of the Convent Garden for sale and gradually an informal market became established.

Upon the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII the land became the property of the Crown, and remained so until 1552 when King Edward VI granted the walled garden of three acres and the adjoining seven acre field (Long Acre) to my ancestor John Russell, lst Earl of Bedford. This land was leased to tenant farmers for nearly 100 years until the 4th Earl of Bedford decided to make the Covent Garden estate more profitable.

The Earl was a shrewd business man and planned to build houses on the estate which could be leased at good rents to 'Gents and men of ability'. Building began in 1631 under the direction of Isaac de Caux, an architect and garden designer. However, it was in fact Inigo Jones who actually designed the overall scheme, which was the first development outside the city boundaries to be planned so formally (a piazza in the Italian style), and was the first and finest of London's residential squares.

The Earl also commissioned St Pauls Church. It is said that he once told Inigo Jones that he could scarcely afford a barn, let alone a church, to which Jones replied 'Then my Lord you shall have the handsomest barn in England'.

The Piazza with its fine portico walks quickly became very popular and in 1662 Samuel Pepys described the square as a 'great resort of gallants'. About the same time a formal market began and the 5th Earl built shops along the garden wall of Bedford House.

Covent Garden received royal recognition 12 May 1670 when Charles II granted the Earl a charter 'to hold for ever a market in the Piazza on every day of the year except Sundays and Christmas Day for the buying and selling of all manner of fruit, flowers, root and herbs...'

Trading flourished and the market quickly spread into the centre of the square. By the end of the eighteenth century it had become 'the greatest market in England for herbs, fruit and flowers.' With success came other problems however; people had begun to complain about the noise and congestion caused by the market. The situation eventually resulted in an Act being passed by parliament in 1828 giving the Earl statuory power to demolish the existing buildings and erect a new market. Between 1828 and 1830, the Dedicated Market was built based on the designs of the architect Charles Fowler. Each warehouse had a cellar and upper floor for storage and the walkway between the 'shops' was wide enough for temporary stalls. The resulting market was both efficient and popular.

By 1880 however the extensive use of the market had again over-reached its facilities and a prolonged attack was mounted by Punch under the heading of ‘Mud Salad Market' in which the market was described as 'a disgrace to London, a special disgrace to his Grace of Mudsford and about the greatest nuisance ever permitted in a great City of Nuisance'. The Duke tried to sell the market to the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1883 but they turned the offer down. The City Corporation also refused the offer but finally in 1914 the property was sold to the Beecham Estate and Pills Ltd.

The Market passed through several hands before the Covent Garden Market Ad of 1961 established the Covent Garden Market Authorities and vested in them the market and some of the surrounding land. On 9 April 1964, the Authority recommended to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food that a new market should be built at Nine Elms approximately two miles from the original site.

The market prior to the move, had an annual turnover of approximately £75 million and some 4-5000 people bought sold and carried produce through it daily.

The need for its move across the Thames to Nine Elms was unquestionable, but it has left in its wake a sadness for those who knew and loved the atmosphere of the Garden. The host of characters and their legends will undoubtedly continue to exist behind the closed doors of the new and efficient market, but no longer the unique mixture of opera goers, office workers, tourists and porters that was...COVENT GARDEN

 

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