146 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



1 June 23, 1870. 



be gratefnl for even the shelter of a barn for themselves and 

 their goods. When St. Panl's was built, the great square of 

 Covent Harden was thus formed : the wall of the garden of 

 Bedford House stood on the south ; on the north and east sides 

 were the piazzas ; and on the west this church. About 1G56, 

 a few temporary sheds and stalls at the back of the garden wall 

 sprang up, and this was the origin of the market, which was 

 legally established by Royal Letters Patent, granted by Charles 

 the Second, in 1C82, " that the said William, Earl of Bedford, 

 his heirs and assigns, should and might from thenceforth for ever 

 have, hold, and keep a market," &c. Bedford House was pulled 

 down in 1704, and a line of street arose in its place. During 

 these alterations the stall and shed keepers huddled together 

 in a pell-mell sort of way (Covent Garden seems always to have I 

 been afflicted with makeshift and bap-hazard) in the centre of 

 the square ; and here fruits, vegetables, herbs, &c, the &c. 

 being very comprehensive — were sold. 



Many who still have business relations with the market re- 

 member vividly what it was about the year 1825. It was then 

 simply an irregular collection of sheds, or huts, or stalls.— shops j 

 would be too fine a word, — in which were sold all sorts of articles; 

 china and crockery, old iron and knicknackery, live poultry | 

 and birds, eggs and butter, fruit, flowers, and vegetables— ail 

 in a chaotic display as befitted the place, which was badly 

 payed, and badly managed in every way. The immediate 

 neighbourhood, too, was frequently the scene of midnight and i 

 early morning brawls and riot. There stood at tho east end a 

 low building called Carpenter's Coffee House ; it was a notori- 

 ous house, with a pet appellation familiar to the readers of the 

 chronicles of the time when George the Fourth was King, I 

 under the name of " The Finish ;" and here the Tom and Jerry 

 of the period could obtain refreshments of a different kind from 

 those in which they had previously too much indulged. There 

 were then no regular constables, and legal authority was repre- 

 sented by the persons of an old beadle and an older watchman, 

 both worn out, and capable of doing little more than calling 

 out the hours. The late Duke of Bedford let this market— to 

 apply to the place a too flattering term— on lease to Messrs. 

 Prince and Lowden, whose chief aim seems to have been to 

 levy high tolls, which suited the lessees very well, but which 

 was grossly unfair both to the selling and buying patrons of the 

 market, whose interests were not in the least studied. The 

 natural result was, that the lessees and the market gardeners were 

 continually in litigation, and the latter, acting on the motto that 

 union is strength, raised monev among themselves to defend 

 their rights. In 1828 this co-ope'ration developed into the form- 

 ation of the Market Gardeners', Nurserymen's, and Farmers' 

 Association, an association which has been more or less in 

 antagonism with the owner and managers of Covent Garden 

 Market ever since, showing there 13 wrong somewhere. Where 

 that wrong exists, will presently be seen. 



At the expiration of the lease in 1828, the Duke determined 

 to erect a market, for it can scarcely be said that a building for 

 the purpose existed before. In that year a private Act of Par- 

 liament was obtained. The plans of Mr. Fowler were approved 

 and carried out, at a cost of about £43,000. A facade was 

 added on the north and west in something like harmony 

 with Imgo Jones's piazzas. The centre is formed by an arch 

 on the entablature of two Tuscan columns, with a single-faced 

 archivolt supported by two piers, which sustain an elevated 

 triangular pediment. The tympanum of this is adorned by 

 the armorial beaiings and motto of the Bedford family, Che 

 sara sara (what will be will be)— a motto well illustrated by 

 the extraordinary apathy which has allowed things to take 

 their own course at Covent Garden Market, as though the doc- 

 trine of fatalism had crushed out the spirit of energy. On each 

 side of this centre is a colonnade of the Tuscan order, projecting 

 in front of the slopes. The columns on the north, south, and 

 east are of granite, in the Palladian-Tuscan style, and. with 

 the ornamental balustrade, have a fine effect. Over the centre 

 of the building are the Bedford conservatories. The appellation 

 suggests something very different from what this part of the 

 market is ; it is simply dreary, desolate, and dull, and through- 

 out conveys the idea of deadened enterprise. The central 

 arcade, or grand avenue running east and west, consists of a 

 number of poorly built shops ; but the character of the struc- 

 tures is not noticed by one in a thousand, consequent on the 

 splendid display of fruit, flowers, and vegetables in the windows. 

 This arcade is a favourite lounge, and in fine weather, when 

 flowers abound and plants are in luxuriouB profusion, a saunter 

 about Covent Garden Market is a pleasant way of spending an 

 hour or so. But it is impossible for the thoughtful eaunterer 



to avoid the conviction, which is forced upon him at every 

 turn, that the market is far from what it ought to be. Mr. 

 Fowler's plans appear to have ignored its purposes, and cer- 

 tainly its probable development. At first the " shops " were 

 mere sheds, utterly unfitted for the trade that might rea- 

 sonably have been expected, and it was found necessary to 

 throw two into one ; and then the granite pillars, hand- 

 some though they be, occupy too much out of an inadequate 

 space, and cause convenience and comfort to be sacrificed 

 to show. 



The two great defects of Covent Garden Market are apparent 

 to the most casual observer, but they are seriously felt by the 

 growers, salesmen, and purchasers ; and the only marvel ia 

 that they have existed so Ion?. These defects are insufficient 

 space and want of shelter. For more than twenty years the 

 Market Gardeners' Association has been endeavouring to 

 obtain a reform in both these respects, but in vain. This 

 Society consists of food-producers, to whom the metropolis is 

 to a great extent indebted for its supply of vegetables and 

 fruit, and, therefore, their representations on a Bubject with 

 which they are practically acquainted, and involving great hard- 

 ships to themselves, have deserved more consideration than 

 they have met with. The Association has advocated the ex- 

 tension of the market as far east as Bow Street. This would 

 give plenty of room to carry on the business, and would be a 

 great boon, not only to the growers, who now justly complain 

 that they are not studied, but to the public. Nor would this 

 additional space be more than is wanted. The present market 

 is notoriously too small for the quantity of goods forwarded, 

 besides which, a great deal more would be sent were there fan- 

 facilities for its reception. Immense quantities of vegetables 

 and fruit are not sent to London, for no other reason than that 

 there is not adequate market accommodation. The supply 

 which the metropolis could command, did it possess, as it ought 

 to have, a fine large commodious market, is practically limitless. 

 In the immediate suburbs, in Essex, Middlesex, Kent, and 

 Surrey, a very large proportion of the land is devoted to the 

 production of vegetable food for that omnivorous monster, 

 London ; and food supplies, in theso railway days, come from 

 all parts of the country and from abroad — for example, early 

 Cabbages and Broccoli from Cornwall ; Peas, Grapes, and 

 vegetables from the Channel Islands ; Lettuce, Peas, &c, from 

 France ; Potatoes from Belgium, Holland, and the Scilly 

 Islands ; Walnuts and Cherries from Belgium ; and especially 

 large supplies of fruit from the sunny orchards and vineyards 

 of la belle France. It need scarcely be pointed out that, if it 

 were not for the foreign supply, London would in some seasons 

 have very little fruit, so much are we, in this variable climate 

 of ours, at the mercy of frosts and blights. It is true that the 

 foreign growers who send in these supplies can generally 

 reckon on shelter for their goods, an unfair advantage which 

 they have over the English growers ; but they cannot always 

 depend on this, for the supply may be exceptionally large, and 

 they can never ensure sufficient accommodation in unloading 

 and delivery. Inadequate space is, indeed, an undeniable 

 fact, of which anyone will be convinced who visits the market 

 — and it is one of the sights of London — early in the morning. 

 He will find the streets all round blocked up with railway vans, 

 market carts, and heavily-laden waggons, and the whole neigh- 

 bourhood a scene of confusion which ought not to be neces- 

 sary. Intimately connected with this defect is the want of 

 shelter ; for producers and products are left exposed to all 

 kinds -of weather, to the injury of both ; and both are treated 

 with about as much consideration. The Assoeiation to which 

 allusion has been made has had many meetings on the subject, 

 and ha3 memorialised the Duke of Bedford to cover in the 

 market, offering to pay an increased rent for the accommoda- 

 tion. But the reform has never come, and does not seem 

 likely to come. The consequences are, that the health of that 

 large proportion of the salesmen, for whom no shelter is pro- 

 vided, is injured by standing in rain and wind for hours ; that 

 they frequently cannot expose their fruit for sale, and trade is 

 thus deadened; and that when soft frnit is exposed it is fre- 

 quently spoilt, fermentation sets in, and the poorer class, who 

 become the purchasers, suffer from illness. It is really mar- 

 vellous that the great metropolitan market should possess far 

 less accommodation than the markets of many a provincial town 

 in onr own or foreign countries ; not to make odious compari- 

 son with splendid markets such as those, for example, of Paris. 

 London notoriously requires more commodious markets than 

 it possesses, and nowhere is this great want bo keenly felt by 

 all concerned as in Bedford-land. — J. M. Philp. (From " Thi 



