Study Day - Covent Garden, A Story in Three Acts!

Covent Garden - A Story in Three Acts! - Simon Whitehouse

Monday 07 April 2025                                  10.30 am to 3.30 pm.

Bourne End Community Centre Wakeman Road SL8 5SX

Tickets £48 to include buffet lunch with wine.

Please contact: Inka D'Agostino 07772995409. inkaania@hotmail.co.uk

LECTURE ONE: FROM CONVENT TO CONCRETE

Covent Garden has been a popular destination for over 1500 years. Our first lecture traces the story of the area's development, from its origins as a thriving Saxon port to Inigo Jones’ revolutionary plan for a ‘piazza', and how the world-famous fruit and vegetable market was nearly 'brutally' demolished in the 1970s!

LECTURE TWO: HOGARTH & HARLOTS

By the early 1700s, Covent Garden became infamous as the 'Square of Venus'. Our second lecture takes a deeper dive into the demi monde world of the Georgian vice industry memorably depicted by Hogarth & other artists. We meet some extraordinary (& enterprising!) characters and open the pages of Harris's infamous list of "Covent Garden Ladies”.

LECTURE THREE: PUNCH, PYGMALION & PUCCINI

In our 'finale' lecture, we raise the curtain on Covent Garden as a place of entertainment. We examine the birth of the West End with two royal theatres that thrive today, and see how the piazza itself has attracted street performers for centuries. We also meet some of the famous (& often forgotten) stars who have graced the stages of London's famed 'theatreland'.