GUIDED TOUR
Book a guided walking tour with a Market Guide and you will hear stories of Covent Garden, tales of the famous people who have lived there, the filming that has taken place, and the market traders and their wonderful and colourful traditions.
Jubilee Market history goes back to 1654 when a small open-air fruit-and-vegetable market had developed on the south side of the fashionable Covent Garden square in London. Gradually, both the market and the surrounding area fell into disrepute, as taverns, theatres, coffee-houses, and brothels opened up. But an Act of Parliament was drawn up to control the area, and Charles Fowler’s neo-classical building was erected in 1830 to cover and help organise the market.
The market grew and further buildings were added: the Floral Hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market running the length of Tavistock Street, named after the then Duke of Bedford, Marquess of Tavistock.
The building as it stands today is a solid rectangular structure standing next to the London Transport Museum and on your tour your Guide will tell you all about the major renovation of the Jubilee Market itself, beginning in 1985 and lasting 2 years, it was re-opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 5th August 1987, as commemorated by a stone plaque in the façade of the market itself.
You can walk on the cobbles where Eliza Doolittle sold her bunches of Violets in My Fair Lady, or where Alfred Hitchcock filmed Frenzy in 1972 or see where Casanova tried to woo English society.