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JAZZING
UP THE PIAZZA
 Next
year’s Rent Ceremony, the Trust’s 21st Anniversary, will be held on 18 June 2009 in the centre
of Covent
Garden
The annual Rent Ceremony is a weird and wonderful occasion when
the Chairman and Trustees march around the Piazza behind the Town
Crier and a jazz band. Five red apples and five posies of flowers
are the “peppercorn” rents due to be paid for the buildings
on which the Covent Garden Area Trust owns a 150-year headlease.
(The Trust was set up in 1988 to replace the Greater London Council’s
role in the area.) These buildings are known as The Protected Lands*.
BACKGROUND NOTES:
The first rent ceremony took place in the spring of 1994. At that
time we were five years in arrears! We paid five red apples and
five posies for each headlease. Since then we have paid our rent
up to date.
The idea of a “peppercorn” rent was conceived by Sylvia
Marder when she worked as a solicitor with the Greater London Council.
She wrote the Trust’s lease. She has said that she thought
it would be fun for the Trustees to parade around the Piazza. And
it would be interesting for the public to see the Chairman and Trustees
out in the open. The rent of one red apple and one posy of flowers
for each headlease reflects the history of the Piazza as a fruit
and vegetable market. Sylvia set the payment to be made on her own
birthday, early in June, but this has not always been a convenient
date for the Rent Ceremony.
*“The Protected Lands” are now almost entirely owned
by Capital & Counties, a subsidiary of Liberty International. Their ownership includes the arcaded Bedford Chambers
block, the Museum Block (which includes London’s
Transport Museums) and Covent Garden’s famous Market.
The five properties are: the elegant Central Market (originally
London’s fruit and vegetable market); the arcaded Bedford
Chambers block; the Museums block; a terrace of Georgian houses
numbered 25-31 James Street and 7, 9, 10 Floral Street.
To
see pictures of earlier Rent Ceremonies in Covent Garden, click
on the buttons for 1994,
1998, 1999,
2000, 2001,
2002, 2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Covent Garden
Area Trust
13 New Row, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4LF
Tel: 020 7497 9245
Fax: 020 7240 2405
Registered Charity no. 299874
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