The first market in
Covent Garden was born in 1654 when market traders set up stalls for fruit and
vegetable against the garden wall of Bedford House. By 1670
the market was held every day except Sundays and Christmas Day.
The original market, consisting of wooden stalls and sheds,
became disorganised and disorderly, and in 1830 was designed the
neo-classical market building that is the heart of Covent Garden today.
By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion was causing
problems for the market, which required increasingly large lorries for
deliveries and distribution.
In 1974 the
market relocated to its new site, New Covent Garden
Market, about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central building re-opened as a shopping centre in
1980, with cafes, pubs, small shops and a craft market called the Apple Market.
