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.