Covent Garden

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.

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The Union Jack

This image shows you the evolution of the British flag.

The Union Flag, popularly known as the Union Jack, is the national flag of the United Kingdom. It is the British flag. It is called the Union Flag because it symbolises the administrative union of the countries of the United Kingdom. It is made up up of the individual flags of three of the Kingdom's countries all united under one Sovereign - the countries of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland (since 1921 only Northern Ireland has been part of the United Kingdom). As Wales was not a Kingdom but a Principality it could not be included on the flag.