Covent Garden in Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden centres on a large open square, the Piazza, laid out in the seventeenth century to a design associated with Inigo Jones and among the earliest formal squares in London. At its heart stands the central market building, a nineteenth-century structure of glass and iron that once housed the capital's principal fruit, vegetable and flower market. After the wholesale trade moved out in the 1970s, the buildings were preserved and given over to shops, stalls, cafes and restaurants, and the market halls now hold small traders and eating places under their arcaded roofs. The Piazza is a focus for street performance, with licensed pitches drawing crowds throughout the day, and it remains one of the most visited public spaces in central London. Around the square stand the Apple Market and Jubilee Market, the London Transport Museum on its eastern side, and St Paul's church, the actors' church, on the west. The setting draws heavily on the theatres, retail and dining of the wider district, and the Piazza serves as its symbolic and physical centre. Its combination of preserved market architecture, open space and constant activity has made Covent Garden one of the defining destinations of the West End.