Covent Garden

Covent Garden is the setting for Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl in George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”. It tells the story of Henry Higgins, who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl as a refined society lady by teaching her how to speak with an upper class accent and training her in etiquette. The play was the basis for the famous film and musical “My Fair Lady”

Covent Garden started life as the convent of St Peter Westminster. A large kitchen garden was maintained throughout the Middle Ages to provide its daily food and it became a major source of fruit and vegetables in London. In 1540 King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and he divided up the land between various individuals to be privately owned. During the 17th century, Francis Russell redeveloped his part of the land and built a central piazza surrounded by colonnaded town houses, modelled on the classic Italian colonial towns. The piazza was used as a market and following the great fire of 1666, which destroyed “rival” markets in the city, Covent Garden market became the principle market in London for fruit, vegetables and flowers.

Covent Garden Today

In August 2007, Covent Garden launched the first ever Food Night Market. Fresh produce from over 35 different stalls included specialist cheeses, mushroom sandwiches, 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 as part of a wider initiative to increase interest in the Covent Garden area.

On the second Sunday in May, a service is held at St Paul’s church which commemorates Punch and Judy puppet shows! There is a brass band procession around Covent Garden, followed by puppetry performances.