Walking Tour - Convent Garden: A Magnet for Artists and Artistic Practice

Discover the largely forgotten history of Covent Garden when it was the centre for artistic life. From the development of the Plazza in the 1630s by the fourth Duke of Bedford, artists started following their patrons to this new fashionable square to live. Stuart Royal artists such at Sir Peter Lily and Godfrey Kneller set up their studios in the Plazza and later artists soon followed or lived in the surrounding streets.

William Hogarth trained in Covent Garden . He along with other artists socialised in the local coffee house. In 1730s he established the St Martin’s Lane Academy which attracted many artists as teachers and pupils. Several of these artists joined the Royal Academy of Art when it was founded in 1768 and from the 1770s was staging its annual exhibitions in the newly rebuilt Sommerset House.

Joseph William Mallard Turner who was born in Covent Garden and the satirical artist, Thomas Rowlandson lived much of his life in the area. Print sellers and art suppliers were everywhere and everyone wanted to go and view the latest prints.

And of the Thames was always inspirational. Claude Monet visited and painted studies for his most atmospheric London paintings…

Re-live this artistic buzz on this varied walk From Covent Garden Piazza ending at Sommerset House.

Picture: Wenceslaus Hollar: View across the market in Covent Garden towards St Paul's Church, c.1647.

Donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60858912

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Host or Publisher Marilyn Greene, Footprints of London