In 1828, Whig politician John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, petitioned for a government bill “for the improvement and regulation of Covent Garden Market”, the fruit, vegetable and flower market for London. The bill allowed him to knock down the Piazza’s ramshackle stalls, erect a proper market building (still standing today) and institute a regulated system of rents.
“Covent-garden Market is nearly finished, except the green-houses intended to decorate the terrace fronting Great Russell-street, the construction of which has undergone a tasteful change, under the inspection of Mr. Hardy, the Duke of Bedford’s principal agent. The market, in its detail, will be the most complete in Europe. Fifty thousand pounds have been expended upon it, which, it is calculated, will barely produce an interest of four per cent. The report is untrue that the whole rental of the Garden amounts to any thing like twelve thousand pounds per annum. The Duke of Bedford had long entertained the project of a new Garden, without regard to additional emolument. The whole of the green-houses are let to two eminent florists.”
Stamford Mercury, 2 April 1830.