Covent Garden market
The first record of a "new market in Covent
Garden" is in 1654 when market traders set up stalls against the garden
wall of Bedford House.
The Earl of Bedford acquired a private charter from Charles II in 1670 for a
fruit and vegetable market, permitting him and his heirs to hold a market every
day except Sundays and Christmas Day. The original market , consisting of wooden
stalls and sheds, became disorganised and disorderly, and the 6th Earl
requested an Act of Parliament in 1813 to regulate it, then commissioned Charles
Fowler in 1830 to design the neo-classical market building that is
the heart of Covent Garden today.The contractor was William Cubitt and Company. Further buildings were added—the
Floral hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market for foreign flowers
was built by Cubitt and Howard.
By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion was
causing problems for the market, which required increasingly large lorries for
deliveries and distribution. Redevelopment was considered, but protests from
the Covent Garden Community Association in 1973 prompted the Home Secretary, Robert
Carr, to give dozens of buildings around the square listed-building status,
preventing redevelopment.
The following year the market relocated to its new site, New Covent Garden
Market, about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central
building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980, with cafes, pubs, small shops
and a craft market called the Apple Market. Another market, the Jubilee Market,
is held in the Jubilee Hall on the south side of the square.
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