Covent Garden

A wonderfully engaging history of London’s most celebrated neighbourhood 

Covent Garden began as luxury housing for the elite of seventeenth-century London, the first purpose-built square in the capital. But the arrival of a few humble market stalls, and the founding of nearby Drury Lane Theatre, had far-reaching consequences for the entire district. Tourists, traders and pleasure seekers soon thronged the piazza. Packed with pubs, coffee-houses, gambling dens and brothels, the area became as notorious as it was enticing.

In this insightful account, Lee Jackson charts four hundred years of urban upheaval, decline and renewal, exploring Covent Garden’s long and eventful history. We see the flourishing of the market, the origins of London’s ‘theatreland’, the opulent Georgian shops that served the aristocracy, as well as the district’s rowdy nightlife, from Restoration taverns to ‘swinging sixties’ nightclubs.

This is an enjoyable portrait of one of London’s most famous districts and its ever-changing inhabitants – an intimate story of a great city’s beating heart.