Covent Garden
Even in the first half of the 17th century, major urban developments were subjects of intense dispute. In both the Elizabethan and the Jacobean eras, regulations had been promulgated to control the urban sprawl that was then uniting London with nearby Westminster. The last open spaces between the two were under pressure in the early 17th century: the area of Lincoln's Inn Fields was partially developed, leaving Covent Garden — the former "convent garden" attached to Westminster Abbey — as the next obvious target for exploitation.
In January 1631, the land's owner, Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, obtained from King Charles I the waiver of the legal restrictions on new building that he needed for a large building project centered on a Continental-style piazza. (The waiver cost Bedford £2000; Charles had dismissed Parliament and begun his eleven-year period of personal rule, and needed the money.)
Read more about this topic: The Weeding Of Covent Garden
Famous quotes containing the word garden:
“In a coign of the cliff between lowland and highland,
At the sea-down’s edge between windward and lee,
Walled round with rocks as an inland island,
The ghost of a garden fronts the sea.”
—A.C. (Algernon Charles)