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WHO
OWNS THE WORLD FAMOUS
COVENT GARDEN MARKET?
Covent Garden’s world-famous Central Market building is the one most people refer to when they talk about “Covent Garden” or “Covent Garden Market”. The freehold is currently owned by Capital & Counties, a subsidiary of Liberty International, who bought both the iconic Central Market building and several other properties in the immediate area for £421million in August 2006.
However, there have been several freeholders in the Market’s history. Before 1988, when the Covent Garden Area Trust was granted a 150-year headlease on the Market, the property was owned by the Greater London Council. The GLC’s Covent Garden team, headed by Geoff Holland (the Trust’s former Chairman) restored the building and converted it from its former use as a fruit and vegetable market into the lively mixture of shops and restaurants which visitors see today. When the GLC was disbanded, the Trust was formed in order to safeguard the buildings that the GLC owned around the Piazza – the Central Market, the Bedford Chambers block and the Museums block plus the Jubilee Market Hall. These buildings are known in the Trust’s lease as the Protected Lands.
The Trust has legal powers and can refuse alterations to the buildings and changes of use. This has led to clashes in the past. In 1996, the Trustees refused permission for a 700-seat restaurant proposed by the then freeholder, Scottish Widows, for the Bedford Chambers block. The Trust was taken to arbitration but won its case.
The original freeholder, from 1988 to 2000, was Guardian Royal Exchange which was eventually taken over by Aegon. At the end of June 2000, the freehold of the Central Market was bought by insurance giant Scottish Widows. The sale was handled by Jones Lang Lasalle, acting on behalf of Scottish Equitable (the British subsidiary of Dutch company Aegon).
In 2001, Scottish Widows joined forces with another local freeholder, Henderson Global and together they formed an investment company called Covent Garden Market Limited Partnership. The buildings put into this company’s ownership were the Central Market and the Museums block, which includes London’s Transport Museum, the Theatre Museum, Russell Chambers and the Jubilee Market (the block boundaries are formed by Russell/Wellington/Tavistock Streets and the Piazza).
All these properties, together with others such as the Bedford Chambers block and other further afield in a seven-acre site (including King Street, Henrietta Street, Maiden Lane Floral Street, James Street and Long Acre), are added to other properties owned by Capital & Counties on Long Acre and Floral Street.
John Saggers, Managing Director of Capital & Counties, said: “We are delighted to have secured this unique Central London investment which plays directly to the strengths of the Liberty International group with its predominant focus on quality retail assets of scarcity value requiring active management and creativity.
“As long-term investors, we look forward to working with the Covent Garden Area Trust in finding ways to evolve and upgrade the quality, offer and value of the Market and Piazza, as well as the surrounding streets for the benefit of all.”
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