A cobbled square in Westminster, now an open-air shopping and performance plaza.
Last reviewed 4 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 566–1974
The short answer
Covent Garden Piazza, in Westminster, London, began in 1630 as London's first planned square, designed by Inigo Jones for the Earl of Bedford on the model of Italian piazzas. It grew into a fruit and vegetable market under royal patent from 1670, moved to Nine Elms in 1974, and reopened as shops in 1980.
Sunday afternoon crowds in Covent Garden Looking from the end of James Street towards King Street, with the old Covent Garden market buildings on the left. — 2008 · David Hawgood · CC BY-SA 2.0
1630 to 1634
Inigo Jones designed a square of houses and a new church
Covent Garden Piazza is a cobbled square, now lined with shops, cafes, and street performers. It began as a building project for Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, who hired the architect Inigo Jones to design it. Jones had seen piazzas in Livorno and Paris, and copied the idea for London. His square had houses on three sides, shops below them, and a new church on the west end. That church, St Paul's, Covent Garden, opened in 1633. It was the first church built new in London since the Reformation a century before.
The square was meant for wealthy residents, not for trade. Early occupants included Sir Thomas Orby, who lived at No. 3 from 1677, and later the painter John Closterman, who took the same house until he died in 1711. Nathaniel Crew, Bishop of Durham, lived on the Piazza too. Parish records say foundling children were often left at his door.
By 1654, traders had set up an informal market on the south side, selling fruit and flowers under the windows of the gentry. In 1670, Charles II made it official, granting the Earl of Bedford a patent to run a market for fruit, flowers, roots, and herbs. The wealthy residents began leaving for quieter streets as the market grew louder and dirtier. Artists and writers moved into the houses they left behind.
By 1830, wooden stalls covered much of the square. The 6th Duke of Bedford had them cleared for a stone market hall, designed by Charles Fowler, with covered halls for trading. The market stayed there, growing busier, for nearly a century and a half.
1795 to 1882
The actors' church burned and rose again twice
St Paul's Church caught fire in 1795 and burned out almost completely. Workers rebuilt it to look nearly as Inigo Jones had designed it. Nearly a century later, the architect Henry Clutton restored the church again. He widened the arches beside the portico and took down the small bell turret on top.
Trade had long since taken over the square by then. The Bedford Coffee House had opened overlooking the piazza in 1726, the first coffee house the Russell family allowed there. It drew actors, writers, and gossip, and became a meeting point for London's theater crowd. According to Samuel Pepys, Covent Garden had already hosted an earlier kind of entertainment: the first Punch and Judy puppet shows in England, in 1662.
1830 to 1974
A stone market hall traded for nearly a century and a half
Charles Fowler's stone market building, finished in 1830, gave the trade a permanent home. Shops lined covered halls where wooden stalls once stood. The market kept growing through the 1800s and into the 1900s, selling fruit, vegetables, and flowers to all of London. Lorries clogged the surrounding streets every morning long before dawn.
By the 1960s, the traffic had become unworkable. Narrow lanes built for horse carts could not handle the volume of trucks. In 1974, the market moved across the river to Nine Elms, ending over three centuries of trading on this spot. The move left Fowler's grand halls empty for the first time since they were built.
1980 to now
Street performers and shops filled the old market halls
The empty market building reopened in 1980 as a shopping center. Cafes, small shops, and a craft market called the Apple Market moved into the old halls. The Jubilee Hall nearby took on its own market too, this one owned entirely by its traders. Street performers claimed the cobbled piazza outside, and they still audition for pitches there today.
The square has drawn other names to it over the centuries. Dr. Samuel Johnson first met James Boswell at a bookseller's house near Russell Street in 1763, a meeting now marked close by. The Lamb and Flag pub nearby once hosted bare-knuckle boxing matches and earned the nickname "the Bucket of Blood." Not every story here was a happy one. In September 1948, a woman named Dora Freedman was stabbed to death in Covent Garden, and a Soho enforcer came under suspicion for her murder.
Today the piazza holds street jugglers, opera singers, and tourists eating outside the old market halls. The Royal Opera House stands nearby, built on the site of the old Theatre Royal, where ballet and opera have been staged since the 1730s. The London Transport Museum fills a corner of the old flower market building a short walk northeast.
The piazza still runs on performance and trade, its cobbles worn by four centuries of both.
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The Goat Tavern, known from at least 1633 at the corner of Russell Street and Bow Street, appeared in Richard Brome's comedy 'The Weeding of the Covent Garden' as a haunt of disorderly drinkers.
Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, implicated in the notorious 1613 poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, lived on Russell Street near Bow Street in the last year of his life before his death in 1645.
Will's Coffee House, at the northwest corner of Russell Street and Bow Street, drew the leading wits and writers of London from the 1660s into the 1730s.
In 1670 King Charles II issued letters patent allowing the 5th Earl of Bedford to formalize the market, restricting sales to fruit, flowers, roots and herbs within the Piazza.
Russell Street appears in nearly 600 Old Bailey trials; in 1740 a court heard how John Cane stole a yard full of clothing left on a horse outside a house on the street.
St Paul's Covent Garden, built by Inigo Jones in 1633 as the first entirely new London church since the Reformation, was largely destroyed by fire in 1795, though its exterior was rebuilt to match the original design.
In 1830 the central Market Building was built to Charles Fowler's design for the 6th Duke of Bedford, replacing the ramshackle wooden stalls that had cluttered the piazza for generations.
The current Royal Opera House, the third theater on the site after fires destroyed its predecessors in 1808 and 1856, stands just steps from the piazza as the home of The Royal Ballet and Opera.
In 1974 the market relocated entirely to Nine Elms across the river, ending over 300 years of trading on the piazza; the old building reopened as a shopping center in 1980.
What was here before Covent Garden Piazza existed?
Wealthy houses and gardens stood on the site before Inigo Jones laid out the Piazza between 1630 and 1634 for Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford, with houses on three sides, shops below, and a new church, St Paul's, at the west end.
What happened to the fruit and vegetable market at Covent Garden?
The market, formalised by royal patent from Charles II in 1670 and housed from 1830 in Charles Fowler's stone market building, grew too large for the surrounding streets and relocated entirely to Nine Elms in 1974, ending over three centuries of trading there.
Why is St Paul's Church in Covent Garden significant?
St Paul's, designed by Inigo Jones and opened in 1633, was the first church built new in London since the Reformation a century earlier; it burned almost completely in 1795 and was rebuilt to nearly match the original design, with later restoration by Henry Clutton.
What is the Covent Garden Piazza used for today?
The piazza holds street jugglers, opera singers and tourists around the old market halls, which reopened in 1980 as a shopping centre with cafes, small shops and the Apple Market, while the Royal Opera House stands nearby.
Did anything violent happen in Covent Garden's history?
In September 1948 a woman named Dora Freedman was stabbed to death in Covent Garden, in a killing attributed to a Soho enforcer.
