2-378-615 - Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images

Early morning, Covent Garden Market, 20th century. Inigo Jones (1573-1652), regarded as the first significant British architect, and the first to bring Renaissance architecture to England, was commissioned by Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford (1593 -1641) to lay out a piazza to the north and east of Bedford House and a church to the west. The square became the site of a fruit, vegetable and flower market, which grew in importance after the Great Fire of London destroyed the sites of rival markets in the City. The market was moved to a new site in 1974 due to increasing traffic congestion.