COVENT GARDEN.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16788, 4 May 1926, Page 8

COVENT GARDEN.

MARKET TO BE MOVED. FOUNDLING HOSPITAL SITE. Covenl Garden market is to be moved, subject to the consent of Parliament, lo Ihe site of the old Foundling Hospital in Bloomsbury (says a London paper). A private Bill will be necessary. If it can be passed through Parliament this session it, will enable the moving of the market into the up-to-date premises on the new site to be accomplished within the next two years. The change over would take place during a week-end.

Underground Goods Station

Features of the new market, plans of which already exist, will be: More than twice the ground area and four limes the storage accommodation of the old; the whole premises, including three times the present number of shops, and a system of internal roads, under one BJ-acrc roof; direct access to the main roads out of London; facilities for preservative storage; elimination of street traffic delays of fruit and vegetables, which observation has shown to have caused a loss of 21,000 van hours in four months; facilities for vans to unload at shops and stands; underground garages, if necessary! accommodation for an underground goods station beneath the market.

Sir Arthur flu Cros, the newly elected director of Bcecham Estates, Ltd., the owners of llic market, and to whose initiative Hie project is due, said to a reporter: "The Foundling Hospital was bought about a year ago by a syndicate, and the Parent Trust and Finance Company, Ltd., of whicli I am chairman, purchased the estate from tlic syndicate. Wc arrived at an agreemenl by whicli the site of the hospital is placed at the disposal of the Bcecham company. Wc can begin the demolilion of the hospital by the end of this year, and I do not think more than another year will elapse before the market is in use. No fewer than 150,000 tons of goods arc sent to Covcnt Garden each year by rail. After satisfying the London demand enormous quantities arc rcconsigncd to the north and other parts of Britain. The proximity of the new site to King's Cross, St. Pancras, Euston, and Marylcbone is important. If desired, a section of the market can be reserved for Dominions' trade and facilities given for the dissemination of information on the marketing of Imperial produce both in this country and in Europe. We have no plans regarding the present site. Wc shall let it develop naturally, and consider any project for theatre, hotel, club, road scheme, or anything else that comes along." At the meeting between the Beoeham Estates, Ltd., and the committee of the Covcnt Carden Tenants' Association. Sir Arthur du Cros said: "While the board is not seeking to sell the market undertaking, their intention being to continue to carry it on as before, under the improved conditions, yel if the Corporation of the City of London should consider it desirable in the public interest that the undertaking, when transferred to the new site, should be carried on by the Corporation, the board will bo ready to consider with the Corporation whether means can be devised towards tin's end." Covcnt Carden Market was condemned by a departmental committee in 102.1. The committee found among other things: it was wholly inefficient to deal with the produce handled; in i no other market was the. accommodation so deficient and congestion so great; it was "a confused and unorganised anachronism." The market began with a few stalls 200 years ago. In 1679 there were 2.'t salesmen employed there. From (lie shade of a garden wall it gradually encroached on the square, becoming a local market for "fruits, herbs, roots, and (lowers" every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It gradually became the greatest distributive and rcconslgnrnent centre for agricultural produce In existence.