December 5, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



445 



sold in Covent Garden, or " The Garden," as costermongers 

 term it, than in all the others united ; and it was known that 

 there was a growing inclination among the higher classes per- 

 sonally to make purchases, and if that taste was fostered by 

 making the market more attractive, the tenants would be em- 

 powered to pay higher rents, for more and wealthier pur- 

 chasers would be tempted thither. The improved shops and 

 colonnades were consequently erected, and now in the centre 

 row alone five florists, one fruiterer and florist, two seedsmen, 

 and fourteen fruiterers have shops, and each of the twenty- 

 two pay an average rental of £100 annually. There are forty- 

 seven fruit and vegetable salesmen in the fruit and long 

 markets, and nine Potato salesmen in the south row, and a 

 far larger number of vendors of fruits and vegetables in the 

 shops and stalls under and about the exterior colonnades. 



Before incurring the large expenditure needful for eonstruct- 

 ng market worthy of the metropolis, the Duke of Bedford 

 wisely had it determined whether he could increase the tolls. 

 By the grant of Charles II. the Earl of Bedford was empowered 

 to hold a market in Covent Garden, and to receive the ac- 

 customed dues and tolls to such market belonging, but not 

 specifying the tolls the opinion was that no tolls could be 

 recovered at common law. This opinion was sustained, but 

 under a subsequent Act of Parliament giving the owner of the 

 market power " to take all such tolls as were usually taken or 

 collected, or which were payable within the market," the 

 •Court of Common Pleas decided that the Duke was entitled to 

 recover such tolls as were usually paid in any part of the 

 market, although they varied on the same articles in different 

 parts of the market (Bedford (Duke) v. Emmett, 3 B. & A. 

 366). Thus assured of remuneration, the Duke proceeded in 

 the work of reformation. 



The market occupies rather less than two acres, its length 

 from west to east being 326 feet, and its breadth from north 

 to south 248 feet. 



In 1827, a plan was submitted to the Duke of Bedford by 

 Mr. Fowler, and exhibited at Somerset House in the same 

 year. A model was soon afterwards formed from this plan, 

 and exhibited to all those interested in the market. The 

 ground plan of this design, which was engraved in 1827, 

 exhibits three parallel buildings, each surrounded by an open 

 colonnade. Exterior to the buildings is a space sufficiently 

 •wide to allow a row of carts and waggons to arrange them- 

 selves side by side, the horses' heads pointing from the build- 

 ing, without interrupting carriages passing along the street. 

 The chief objection to this plan was the occupation of so much 

 space by the colonnades. In other respects it does not differ 

 ■essentially from that executed. 



In 1827, the Duke of Bedford having procured an act of par- 

 liament for the rebuilding of the market, employed Mr. Fowler 

 as its architect; and, by the suggestions of Mr. Charlwood, 

 who was employed to arrange the ground plan, distribution, 

 and appropriation of the different departments of the market, 

 the plan o' Mr. Fjwler was altered till it assumed the form of 

 that about to be described. 



Approaching from the east, the chief feature is the quad- 

 ruple ejlonuaie with the conservatories over. In the central 

 building is a passage 16 feet wide (t t «), open to the roof, 

 and on each side a range of fruit shops, forced articles, and 

 the more choice culinary vegetables and herbs. Each shop 

 has a cellar under, and a room over it, with a trap-doOr to the 

 former, and a small staircase to the latter. There are two 

 exterior colonnades on the north and south sides (ncc), 

 which serve as passages in front of the shops : the shops on 

 the north side are for different descriptions of culinary vege- 

 tables and the commoner fruits, and those on the south side 

 are exclusively for Potatoes and the commoner roots. The half 

 •of one of the areas (d r>) is covered with a roof in three parts, 

 open at the sides for ventilation and light ; the roof is sup- 

 ported by cast-iron pillars, from which spring circular ribs, in- 

 stead of horizontal tie-beams ; and the result is a very light 

 appearance. Under it is held the wholesale fruit market, and 

 below the surface are fruit cellars. The open space (e f d) under 

 the quadruple colonnade is occupied at one end as a fruit 

 market, and at the other with stands for fruits and vegetables. 



The ascent to the conservatories over this open colonnade is 

 by four staircases, two from the central passage (u t (), and 

 one from the end (e q) of each of the exterior colonnades. 

 The framework of the conservatories is wholly of cast iron and 

 copper, even to the shelves of the stage. The conservatories 

 are la feet broad, and 15feet high; they do not occupy more 

 than a third of the area of the terrace, and the remaining part 



serves as a promenade, and for the display of hardy plants in 

 pots and vases, and other garden ornaments. In the centre 

 of the terrace is a handsome fountain designed by Mr. Fowler, 

 of Devonshire marble, highly polished. The water is supplied 

 from a cistern, or rather a series of connected cisterns, placed 

 immediately under the roof of the grand central passage. 



There are cellars below all the fruit markets, under all the 

 buildings and pathways, and continued through one side of the 

 long market (e e) for storing-up Potatoes. There are rooms 

 over all the shops, used partly as store-places and partly as 

 bedrooms. 



Both the open and covered markets are inaccessible by carts 

 and waggons. There are circular openings or manholes, 2 feet 

 in diameter, in the floor of the long market (e e), which com- 

 municate with the cellars, and through which the Potatoes are 

 shot down ; and there are openings by trap-doors to the cellars 

 of the fruit market for similar purposes. The openings by 

 which the Potatoes are brought up from the cellars are within 

 the buildings. There are also cellars for washing the Potatoes, 

 and water is laid on for this purpose, as well as for general 

 uses, throughout the whole of the buildings. The supply is 

 obtained from an Artesian well, sunk beneath the central path 

 to the depth of 280 feet, which affords 1600 gallons per hour, a 

 quantity greatly exceeding any occasion that can be expected 

 to arise. A small steam engine has been erected to distribute 

 the water over the higher parts of the buildings, and the whole 

 area of the markets, and more especially to -upply the hand- 

 some fountain before mentioned on the terra e in front of the 

 conservatories. The central passage (utt), the exterior 

 colonnades, and every other exterior part, independently of the 

 interior of the shops, are lighted by gas. 



The interior walls of the shops, cellars, &c, are of brick, 

 faced in conspicuous situations with Yorkshire freestone. The 

 columns are of Scotch and Devonshire granite, the shafts 

 being of one stone each. The paving of the passages is partly 

 of granite and partly of Yorkshire stone. The open and 

 covered markets (e and d d) are causewayed with granite, in 

 the manner of the best street paving. The terrace over the 

 quadruple colonnade is composed of large slabs of stone, which 

 form at once the floor of the terrace and the ceil in g of the 

 colonnade. From the terrace the water is drained into hollow 

 cast-iron beams, on which the stones rest. These are sup- 

 ported by columns, some of which, in the centre compartment, 

 indicated between D and E, are of cast iron, for the purpose of 

 obtaining more light and space directly in front of the central 

 passage. The exterior passages, including the shops, are 

 covered with slate and zinc. 



The conservatories are heated by hot water or by steam, at 

 pleasure, according to a plan devised and executed under the 

 direction of Mr. Collins. 



The buildings were completed in 1830, after an expenditure of 

 £42,000, and now on every fine day of the year the market is 

 much frequented. As early as two o'clock in the morning 

 waggons high-loaded with regularly-packed Cabbages may be 

 seen moving slowly along Piccadilly and other approaches to 

 the market ; others with Turnips, all with their white globes 

 outwards ; and spring vans with sieves of fruits. From that 

 hour until nine, especially if it be the morning of a Saturday, 

 the market is thronged and animated, but necessarily orderly. 

 The most delicate fruits — Peaches, Raspberries, Strawberries, 

 &c, are deposited in the Central Avenue. On the north of 

 that avenue, under a covered space, Apples, Pears, Plums, 

 and other hardy fruits that are in season are for wholesale. 

 The open space to the south is for vegetables, and without- 

 side them is occupied by the Potato-salesmen. The fruit 

 sales are of the produce of England, France, Holland, Bel- 

 gium, Spain, Portugal, and Algiers. If the sale exceeds the 

 supply, the electric telegraph and steamers secure a larger im- 

 port within forty-six hours from Holland, Belgium, or France. 



In one night the South-Eastern Railway has borne to London 

 100 tons of Green Peas, 25 tons of Plums, and 16 tons of Black 

 Currants from France ; 50 tons of fruit, and 10 tons of Filberts 

 from Kent. The Brighton and South-coast Railway has brought 

 in one year 3C0 tons of fruit from Jersey and Dieppe. In 1853 

 the Great Northern brought hither nearly 46,000 tons of Pota- 

 toes, and 1940 tons of other vegetables. Walnuts are brought 

 from Antwerp, and the steamers have on board sometimes 

 between 400 and 500 tons. The writer from whom I derive 

 these items saw 613 bushel baskets of Strawberries and 

 1000 baskets of Greengages that had arrived from Honfleur 

 during the week. 



In the season one salesman employs four hundred women 



