• COVENT GARDEN’S NAME HAILS FROM THE 13TH CENTURY; IT WAS A SITE WHICH BELONGED TO THE CONVENT OF ST PETER AT WESTMINSTER. THIS ‘CONVENT GARDEN’ BECAME A PROMINENT SOURCE OF LONDON’S FRUIT AND VEGETABLES.

    In 1540, following a dispute with the Roman Catholic Church, King Henry VIII dissolved all of the country’s monastic properties and granted the land to the 1st Earl of Bedford. In 1627 the fourth Earl of Bedford commissioned architect Inigo Jones to build houses ‘fit for the habitations of Gentlemen’.

    Influenced by classical Italian architecture, Jones built St Paul’s churchyard, located behind the Piazza, and three sides of terraced houses which looked out onto an open courtyard.

    These houses appealed to the rich and famous and for some time, the Piazza was one of the most sought after addresses in the Capital, as it remains today.