Covent Garden’s historic Jubilee Market Hall goes up for sale where Pepys saw world’s first Punch and Judy show and tourists brave jugglers and living statues to enjoy eating and drinking, antiques and arts and crafts
- The historic Jubilee Market Hall in Covent Garden is up for sale for the first time in its storied history
- A listing from real estate agents DWD Property+Planning describes a ‘long lease’ of a major retail premises
- Famous diarist Samuel Pepys recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in May 1662 at the market
The historic Jubilee Market Hall in Covent Garden is up for sale after a listing emerged from real estate agents DWD Property+Planning.
The property listing, posted on May 9th, describes ‘a unique opportunity to purchase the long lease of a major retail premises in Central London.’
Running along Tavistock Street, the 20,136 sq ft Market Hall is available for leasehold. It is not yet clear which buyers the real estate agents have in mind, nor for how much it is likely to sell.
Steeped in history, the market once served as the lodgings of novelist Thomas De Quincey, and the diarist Samuel Pepys recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in May 1662.
The historic Jubilee Market Hall in Covent Garden is up for sale for the first time in its history after a listing emerged from real estate agents DWD Property+Planning. The property listing, posted on May 9th, describes ‘a unique opportunity to purchase the long lease of a major retail premises in Central London’
Ray Green, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Jubilee Market Hall, devised a scheme inviting fellow market traders to raise funds and purchase the building to keep it out of bankrupcty. After Greater London Council (GLC) decided to demolish it, Green fought back and formed Jubilee Market Hall Limited in 1984 to protect it until his death in 2010
The Jubilee Hall, which houses the market, was built in 1904 and gained status as a Grade 2 listed building in 1980.
Two years after it was renovated, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Jubilee Market Hall on 5 August 1987, as commemorated by a headstone in the façade of the market.
Ray Green, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Jubilee Market Hall, devised a scheme inviting fellow market traders to raise funds and purchase the building to keep it out of bankrupcty.
The Market Hall became embroiled in the 1968 plan for Greater London Council (GLC) to demolish large parts of Covent Garden and temporarily relocate residents as part of an effort to rebuild the capital.
The wider proposal was known as the Abercrombie Plan, inspired by the modernst ideology of French architect Le Corbusier.
Author Simon Jenkins, writing years later in the Guardian, called it: ‘An event that had more impact on the face of the capital than any since the great fire of London.’
If the plan had gone ahead, he added, it would have ‘led to the demolition of more houses than were destroyed by the Luftwaffe.’
Part of the process in 1974 was relocating the market to Nine Elms in Battersea, an effort to stop traffic congestion around the original market.
But after GLC decided to demolish it, public outcry saw thousands protest on the streets. Green was one of those who fought back, forming the Jubilee Market Hall Limited in 1984 to protect it until his death in 2010.
The traders were made shareholders in the company with a lease on their own plot in the market set to last 125 years.
Approximately 38 years later, it appears a leasehold on the property is available once again.
DWD Property+Planning did not respond to MailOnline’s request for comment.
The Jubilee Hall, which houses the market, was built in 1904 and gained status as a Grade 2 listed building in 1980. Steeped in history, the market once served as the lodgings of novelist Thomas De Quincey, and the diarist Samuel Pepys recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in May 1662
https://youtube.com/watch?v=gbd415YjFGQ%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US
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