The market porters of Covent Garden were famous for carrying tottering piles of baskets of fruit, veg and flowers, up to six or seven, on their heads. Now few of the tourists who mill around buying tacky souvenirs and watching the buskers realise the place was a market at all.
Some families worked as porters at Covent Garden for generations, as portrayed in a bronze on the Jubilee market Hall by Glynis Owen. The caption at the bottom of the bronze explains all - click to enlarge, as with all picture on this blog.
I have been to Covent Garden and you are correct; there is little to remind visitors what Covent Garden was famous for.
ReplyDeleteI love the bronze - it seems well placed and beautifully done. And it reminds me, from time to time, of old professions and trades that once thrived, but are now barely heard of.