C12 - Friday, May 18, 1984 - North Shore News

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MOVED LOCK, STOCK AND BARROW
Cries and curses of gardeners gone

From page C11

George 1s upstairs.

Close by all this actrvity the
Grand Umon Canal shdes by
unnoticed. Walking a few
dozen paces along the
towpath, | am in a different
world. The traffic mouse ts
muffled and although 1 can
see the red buses lumbering
across the bridge, I am
almost un a= rural setting
Here pressures of the or-
dinary world slough away
and the leisurely lifestyle of
canal boating sets the pace,
as | watch the narrow craft
manoeuvre through the locks
en route to nearly any point
in’ midland and northern
England

Leaving Camden Town to
enjoy its boisterous Saturday
afternoon, T take the tube"
to Covent Garden, where the
tradition of selling tresh pro-
duce dates back to the 12th
century. However, the square
and covered market no
longer ring with the cries and
curses of the market
pardeners, who have moved
lock, stock and barrow boy
south of the Thames.

The place has been gussied
up and is now a smart enter-
tainment and shopping area
with a variety of specialty
stores and restaurants and
the London Transport
Museum, which have all been
cleverly integrated with the
original buildings One of
London's first) late-night
shopping experiments, tl ts
open trom 10am to 8 pom.

This renaissance is in fact
its second since Inigo Jones
drew up plans tor the famous
piazza and its adjoining pro-
perty in the 17th century for
the Barl of Bedford in the
bth century the hor pollo
took over and the square was
used tor football, boxing and
wrestling and other recrea
Gon, as well as for selling
produce, and many wealthy
residents moved away The
19th Century saw a return to
respectability when Wallam
bowler built the covered
market to house the vendors,
and the tukety old booths
and sheds were taken down

In othe latest tenosy ations

Uilem

piu ean
aan

there 1s a blend of all the
historical uses to which Co-
vent Garden market has been
put over the years. Where
once the fashionable society
of 17th century London met
in coffee houses and taverns,
tourists tuck into. charcoal
grilled steaks, salads and
quiche in boulevard eating
places. Instead of wrestlers
— madrigal singers, folk
singers, tightrope walkers
and magicians now entertain
the crowds in the square, and
a Punch and Judy show per-
torms on the very spot where
the first such show drew an
audience in 171).

The covered market, or
central hall, now houses SQ
shops, from high class
fashion boutiques with men’s
sweaters at £68 a shot
that’s pounds — to a but-
chers, a tea merchants, anda
cigar and snuff shop with
clay pipes in the window.
There's Cranks Health
Foods, herbalists, chocolate
makers, and Penguin books,
and nearby fine china and
porcelain. Craftspeople have
central stalls and it all smacks
of the carefully hand-picked
top quality stuff that ait ts.

Covent Garden, | mused
ruefully on aé= first) cursory
glance, has been sanitized,
vacuum packed ,neatly served
up on bite-sized chunks

I needn't have worried
The planners of the new Co-
vent Garden had shrewdly
foreseen just such a reaction
as mine, and there is, it
seems, a place for everything
— even nostalgia.

For around the corner near
Jubilee Hall | came upon the
Saturday afternoon craft and
flea market in full cry) Here
were the famihar barrows, re
painted a gaudy red and bluc.
wearing thei jaunty striped
awnings with aplonib As
well as the usual flea market

wares there Were wooden
loys. leather goods, hot wat
fles for 6O0p cach. and cratt
speople demonstrating ther
shally, and {or some un
fathomable reason

boomerangs on sale The og
casional fruit vendor not omy
sold) oranges and oherties
but crxoti mehotr mangos

avocados — Net3l

would have ap- through the clutter, 1 definitely second-class to someone with halitosis.

plauded their business reflected that | wouldn't have cluizens in London. Nor Weekend London has many

Happily wandering home — _ pedestrians are a stuffy ‘‘tube’’ crushed next

to fight the traffic onthe way would | have to straphang in things to recommend It.

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