[1] It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, itself known as "Covent Garden".

[6] During the Roman period, what is now the Strand – running along the southern boundary of the area that was to become Covent Garden – was part of the route to Silchester, known as "Iter VII" on the Antonine Itinerary.

[9] The area to the north of the Strand was long thought to have remained as unsettled fields until the 16th century, but theories by Alan Vince and Martin Biddle that there had been an Anglo-Saxon settlement to the west of the old Roman town of Londinium were borne out by excavations in 1985 and 2005.

These revealed that a trading town, called Lundenwic, developed around 600 AD,[10] stretching from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych, with Covent Garden at the centre.

[11] The first mention of a walled garden comes from a document, c. 1200 AD, detailing land owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St Peter, Westminster.

[17][18] In 1630 Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford commissioned the architect Inigo Jones to design and build a church and three terraces of fine houses around a large square or piazza.

[19] This had been prompted by King Charles I having taken offence at the poor condition of the road and houses along Long Acre, which were the responsibility of Russell and Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth.

[22] Descriptions of the prostitutes and where to find them were provided by Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, the "essential guide and accessory for any serious gentleman of pleasure".

In 1913 Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford agreed to sell the Covent Garden Estate for £2 million to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley, who sold his option in 1918 to the Beecham family for £250,000.

[24] By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion had reached such a level that the use of the square as a modern wholesale distribution market was becoming untenable, and significant redevelopment was planned.

After consulting with residents and local businesses, Westminster Council drew up an action plan to improve the area while retaining its historic character in 2004.

London Transport Museum and the side entrance to the Royal Opera House box office and other facilities are also located on the square.

The inclusion of the adjacent old Floral Hall, previously a part of the old Covent Garden Market, created a large new public gathering place.

[57] The square was originally laid out when the 4th Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, commissioned Inigo Jones to design and build a church and three terraces of fine houses around the site of a former walled garden belonging to Westminster Abbey.

[60] None of Inigo Jones's houses remains, though part of the north group was reconstructed in 1877–79 as Bedford Chambers by William Cubitt to a design by Henry Clutton.

[64][65] The original market, consisting of wooden stalls and sheds, became disorganised and disorderly, and John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, requested an act of Parliament[which?]

The first parts of the collection were brought together at the beginning of the 20th century by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) when it began to preserve buses being retired from service.

[81] The Covent Garden building has on display many examples of buses, trams, trolleybuses and rail vehicles from the 19th and 20th centuries as well as artefacts and exhibits related to the operation and marketing of passenger services and the impact that the developing transport network has had on the city and its population.

As well as dealing with local petty criminals, a number of high-profile defendants appeared in the court, including Oscar Wilde, Dr Crippen and the Kray twins, and those facing extradition proceedings, such as Augusto Pinochet and James Earl Ray.

[91] Parts of the building are open to the public daily, and its preserved classic Art Deco style, together with its regular use as a film and television location, have made it a tourist destination.

[clarification needed] London newspaper adverts printed in the 18th century confirm the presence of free and unfree men, women and children of African and Asian heritage living and working in the area.

[citation needed] Like Sarah, a young enslaved woman of colour who ran away from a Mary Vernon, at Fishers Warehouse in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden in 1746.

[92] RUN away from her Mistress on Saturday Morning last...Sarah, but is suppos’d to have been lately christen’d; she is about twenty Years of Age, short and thick, has one of her little Fingers bent inwards, and is mark’d on the Right Shoulder with the Letters IV, speaks pretty good English, and took away with her a white Linnen Gown, a blue and white Linnen Gown, and a brown Stuff Gown, of her own Apparel: Whoever will bring her to her Mistress, Mary Vernon, at Fisher’s Warehouse in Tavistock-Street, Covent-Garden, shall have Five Guineas Reward; or who yet will give Notice where she may be found, shall have  Guinea for their Trouble; and if she will voluntarily return to her Mistress, she shall be kindly receiv’d, and all her Faults forgiven; but whoever shall harbour or or entertain her after the Publication thereof, will be prosecuted to the Rigour of the Law.Mary Vernon is believed to be the daughter of James Vernon Senior (whose wife was also called Mary) who was clerk to the supreme court of Jamaica.

[95][96] Admiral Vernon would have been tended to by enslaved domestic servants like Sarah when in Jamaica, and it was relatively common for Royal Navy commanders to bring these individuals to Britain when they returned, often gifting unfree women and girls to their mothers, wives and daughters.

[103] Street entertainment at Covent Garden was noted in Samuel Pepys's diary in May 1662, when he recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in Britain.

[112] The first mention of a pub on the site is 1772 (when it was called the Cooper's Arms – the name changing to Lamb & Flag in 1833); the 1958 brick exterior conceals what may be an early 18th-century frame of a house replacing the original one built in 1638.

[116] The Salisbury in St Martin's Lane was built as part of a six-storey block around 1899 on the site of an earlier pub that had been known under several names, including the Coach & Horses and Ben Caunt's Head; it is both Grade II listed, and on CAMRA's National Inventory, due to the quality of the etched and polished glass and the carved woodwork, summed up as "good fin de siècle ensemble".

Eliza Doolittle, the central character in George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion, and the musical adaptation by Alan Jay Lerner, My Fair Lady, is a Covent Garden flower seller.

[139] Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film Frenzy about a Covent Garden fruit vendor who becomes a serial sex killer,[140] was set in the market where his father had been a wholesale greengrocer.

It is served by Piccadilly line trains, which link the area directly to important Central London destinations including King's Cross St Pancras, South Kensington, and Heathrow Airport ().