Talk:Covent Garden

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Contents 1 Church 2 What they make 3 Valletta connection? 4 Camden 5 Reputation? 6 Photos from when it actually was a market 7 Support removal of trivial trivia 8 Northern boundary

[edit] Church

If it was a Convent's Garden, why was it owned by the Church of England? Convents are Catholic. -Adrian

Covent Garden was the name given, during the reign of King John (1199 - 1256), to a 40 acre 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.

These type of leases did eventually lead to property disputes throughout the kingdom, which the monarch King Henry VIII solved in 1540 by the stroke of a pen when he dissolved the monasteries and appropriated their land. Prior to this England was Catholic.

King Henry VIII granted the land to John Baron Russell, Great Admiral of England, and later the first Earl of Bedford. In fulfilment of his father's dying wish, King Edward VI, bestowed the remainder of the convent garden in 1547 to his maternal uncle, Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset who began building Somerset House on the South side of the Strand the next year. When he was beheaded for treason in 1552, 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, known as "le Covent Garden" plus "the long acre", were granted by royal patent in perpetuity to John Russell, the first Earl of Bedford.

So I guess it is a simplification to say it was owned by the Church of England. - Laurence

yep.

The boundary of Covent Garden extends up to New Oxford Street, Westward to Seven Dials, Eastwards to Kingsway and Southbound to Strand.

The article dwells on the tourist and (near-sanitised) heritage aspects but fails to give an overall picture of the locale. Historically it was notorious for it's crime and deprivation. Currently there are two large homeless hostels are situated within Covent Garden and another few situated nearby.

[edit] What they make

Doesn't Covent Garden make soups? -- Kilo-Lima 13:19, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Not really... A small company made the first "New Covent Garden Soup" in 1987, but they were never based in Covent Garden. They grew vegetables, near Peterborough, I believe, and were looking for another market for their produce instead of simply taking it all to the wholesale market in London at - Covent Garden. They sold out the business in 1998, and the brand is now owned by Singapore Food Industries. So now you know! Carbonix 22:14, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Valletta connection?

I attempted to substantiate this paragraph: "The architecture of the Covent Garden Market has led to the creation of a market with identical architectural plans in Valletta, the capital of Malta."

There may be some confusion here. The Royal Opera House in Valletta was designed by E M Barry, the same architect who designed the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. (It was completed in 1866, gutted by a fire in 1873 and destroyed by enemy action during World War II.) However there does not seem to be any linkage relating to the design of market at Valletta. I've removed the comment, until someone can clarify this. Carbonix 21:48, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Camden

Parts of Covent Garden bordering Kingsway and Holborn are in the London Borough of Camden, and the parliamentary constituency of Holborn and St. Pancras . Anyone have a view about that before I add it to the infobox? -- zzuuzz 22:44, 18 January 2006

I'd say go for it. RicDod 18:22, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reputation?

I think the article ought to mention the area's notoriety, and the connection of "flower girls" with prostitution. (I'm just working on Wells's story "The Diamond-Maker" (1894), which uses the term.) 128.147.38.10 15:09, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photos from when it actually was a market

It would be nice to have photos of the time when Covent Garden actually was a market. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zzapper (talk • contribs) 08:03, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Support removal of trivial trivia

Viva-Verdi (talk) 15:40, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Ditto. Almost did it myself when I saw the Lost entry --John Gibbard (talk) 16:50, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

I've also removed the Naomi Campbell "discovery" story. It seems to be all over the web but I can't find any reliable sources for it. More to the point: as a pretty young schoolgirl in London if she was going to be discovered it had to happen somewhere in London, so the mere fact that she was walking in Covent Garden doesn't mean much and certainly isn't a "cultural connection." --Tony Sidaway 17:19, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Northern boundary

I think you mean New Oxford Street, not High Holborn, for the northern boundary. High Holborn becomes New Oxford Street to the west of Holborn Station. Kake Pugh (talk) 19:49, 24 February 2008 (UTC)