Covent Garden

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Domains

Landscape and Gardens
Urbanism/ Urban Planning

Dates

Date of occurrence 1639

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

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Beginning in 1639, Covent Garden was laid out by Inigo Jones, the first great British student of Andrea Palladio, as an arcaded piazza modelled on the Italian Renaissance style at the behest of Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford. Inigo Jones's neo-classical church, St Paul's, Covent Garden, was designed to provide a dramatic focus at the centre of the western side of the piazza. The elegant houses, five stories in height, seem even today quite recent, an indication of just how influential the neo-classical style promoted by Jones was to become. Unfortunately, the open market which had originally stood on this site – the “Convent Garden” – operated under titles which Bedford could not foreclose, so the piazza failed to become the smart address which Russell had intended. Soon…

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182 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Covent Garden". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 January 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=233, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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