The streets of Covent Garden tell a fascinating history of London life over the centuries. One of the first examples of town planning, the earliest inhabitants were the social elite living in grand houses looking out on to a continental style piazza. Following the money came the street traders whose successors transformed Covent Garden into one of the world’s largest fruit and vegetable markets.
With the birth of the Market came an influx of writers, actors and artists whose bohemian lives gave Covent Garden a reputation as an intellectual powerhouse alongside a low life of crime and prostitution.
Covent Garden & Strand pulsate with as much life and energy today as they did during their 400-year history. Tourists have replaced market traders and characterful pubs have succeeded gin palaces. The coffee houses of the 17th and 18th centuries were bawdier places than the modern equivalent but eating, drinking, and entertainment remain at the heart of this dynamic quarter.
Popular historian Barry Turner brings alive the characters, from aristocrats to costermongers, who have shaped Covent Garden and its world-famous Market.
Mục lục
Foreword
1 The Garden Grows
The origins of Covent Garden; Inigo Jones and the Piazza; St Paul’s, the Actors’ Church; The aristocracy and gentry move in[Rc1]
2 High Life, Low Life
A new cultural network of artists and writers; Coffee houses and gin palaces; Courtesans and prostitutes; .Crime and detection[Rc4]
3 Curtain Up
Punch and Judy; Two new licensed theatres; Covent Garden and Drury Lane; Nell Gwyn; Theatrical greats David Garrick, Edmund Kean and Richard Brinsley Sheridan
4 From Theatre to Music Hall
Supper clubs; Music halls; Great days of the Lyceum; Leading 19th century actors; Charles Mathews, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry; Oswald Stoll and the Coliseum; Birth of spectacular theatre; Ivor Novello and Noël Coward
5 The Ever Changing Scene
The Market thrives; Central Market built; Moss Bros; Pantomime as annual outing; The arrival of American musicals; Floral Hall and Jubilee Market
6 The Covent Garden of Charles Dickens
Dickens’ weekly journals; Household Words and All Year Round; Novel serialisations; The Six Toes Trial; Boom in book and periodical publishing; The Strand Magazine
7 All the World’s a Stage
The founding of the Garrick Club; Characters of the Club; Unrivalled collection of theatrical paintings; The Milne legacy; Free speech and the Muggeridge affair
8 The Garrick Affair
Rivalry[Rc13] between Dickens and Thackeray; Marital discord; Edmund Yates and gossip journalism; expulsion of Yates from the Garrick Club and aftermath
9 ‘Let’s All Go Down the Strand’
The [Rc16] Strand palaces; Opening of Charing Cross station; The Adams Brothers and the Adelphi Terrace; The Royal Society of Arts; Coutts Bank; Angela Burdett-Coutts, ‘Queen of the Poor’; Exeter Hall, the Royal Courts of Justice; Twinings
10 A Good Night Out
Cookshops; Chop houses;Early restaurants – Rules, Simpsons-in-the-Strand, Romanos; Richard D’Oyly Carte; Gilbert and Sullivan; George Grossmith and the Savoy Operas; Opening of the Savoy Hotel
11 A Song and a Chorus
Gatti Brothers; The Adelphi and Vaudeville theatres; The Gaiety theatre; Gertie Millar; Showgirls marrying into the aristocracy[Rc19]
12 Ring in the New
The Market changes hands; Sir Thomas Beecham; Waldorf Hotel; Ben Travers and the Aldwych farces; The Blitz; The Covent Garden Market Authority; The Market moves; Campaign saves historic buildings
Giới thiệu về tác giả
Barry Turner is an author, editor and reviewer. He has written over thirty books, most recently Piccadilly: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Thoroughfare also published by Mensch Publishing. Other titles include Men of Letters: The story of Garrick Writers; Thorns in the Crown: the Story of the Coronation and Waiting for War: Britain 1939-1940. He is also the author of The Berlin Airlift; Beacon For Change: How the 1951 Festival of Britain Shaped the Modern Age and of Suez 1956. He has contributed to newspapers including The Times and The Sunday Times and currently reviews classic crime novels for the Daily Mail. Barry lives in London and south-west France.
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