Covent Garden Market Building

TQ 3080 NW CITY OF WESTMINSTER COVENT GARDEN, WC2. 72/11 Covent Garden market 24.2.58 building

G.V. II*

Former covered market buildings. 1828-30 by Charles Fowler. Granite, stock brick and stucco, slate and glass roofs. Triple ranges in a neo-classical composition. North and south elevations have 12 bay granite monolith Doric colonnades flanking central 2 storey, pedimented Venetian entrances, the ranges terminating in square 2 storey lodge pavilions with pyramidal chimney-finialed lead roofs. The east end has a 4-deep Doric column portico with balustraded terrace and a pediment gable decked with urns and a sculptural group marking The Central Avenue: an arcade of restored shops with mezzanine windows set in arcade, with 5 attic storey lights, above each bay, set behind dwarf Doric columns, glazed roof on kingpost trusses. The former open market spaces between the ranges were roofed in 1874-75 and 1888-89 by Cubitt's with iron columns linked by skeleton arches supporting semicircular trusses of glazed and slated roof with open clerestory. The west front of the Central Avenue has a 5-bay colonnade carrying 7 window wide 1st floor with entablature arched over centre framed by pediment gable; 5-bay colonnades flank the inner faces of the outer ranges at the west end balancing the centre feature. The whole of the complex has been restored by the GLC.

Survey of London; Vol. XXXVI. Covent Garden Market; Robert Thorne.

Listing NGR: TQ3036080894