If you’re in London even for a short time, then Covent Garden is a must see. Not only can you shop and eat amazingly well, but you can also enjoy the street theatre and excitement that always surrounds this historical market place. Covent Garden derives its name ("Convent Garden") from the presence there in the Middle Ages of a garden belonging to Westminster Abbey. The framework of the piazza  built by the Earl of Bedford which he built survives to give the framwework of the modern site. The piazza was laid out in 1631 by Hugo Jones. Some of the original street names have been retained: King Street, Charles Street, Henrietta Street were named in honour of Charles I and iris Queen Henrietta Maria; Catherine Street, from the consort of Charles II. Bedford Street, Russell Street, Southampton Street amid Tavistock Street derive their names from tire titles of the Russell family. The stalls of market traders hawking fruit and vegetables gradually became an established feature of the square, and the Earl of Bedford, recognising the potential of a market sited between the City and Westminster, obtained the right to hold a market there by Letters Patent from Charles II in 1670. Itinerant shows were held in the piazza, and the central square became a recreation ground for apprentices and local children. In the eighteenth century Covent Garden developed into a more bohemian resort for the artists, journalists and writers who frequented its many coffee houses and taverns. An Act passed in 1966 provided for the removal of the fruit and vegetable market at Covent Garden to new premises at Nine Elms, Vauxhall, eight years later, and the lands in the freehold ownership of the Covent Garden Market authority were acquired by the Greater London Council and the Department of the Environment. The central Piazza area and its environs have been redeveloped as a mixture of restaurants and cafes, commercial premises and market stalls, catering mainly for tourists following a successful popular campaign to preserve the area and adapt existing buildings rather than comprehensive redevelopment

For more information see www.coventgardenmarket.co.uk