The Covent Gardener

The Covent Gardener THE COVENT GARDENER is a quirky, print magazine dedicated to celebrating Covent Garden. 8 years old

Covent Garden đź’› 7pm tonight.
30/09/2025

Covent Garden đź’› 7pm tonight.

In less than 48 hours I’ll be swapping Covent Garden for canals 🇳🇱 My very first time in Amsterdam…Canal trips with a...
30/09/2025

In less than 48 hours I’ll be swapping Covent Garden for canals 🇳🇱 My very first time in Amsterdam…

Canal trips with and , and even … plus Rotterdam, The Hague and Delftware in the mix. Not to mention all the cafes I’ve been recommended!

I’ll be staying and hoping to meet the legendary .biemans of 🙌🏻

This is all part of an adventure for the next issue of The Covent Gardener.

Please share any tips! Even though not sure how much more I can pack into my time there…

Illustration: .hensler 🪭

2/10 Lady of the Garden 🍊 Over ten weeks we’re celebrating a decade of independent print with 10 brilliant features from...
29/09/2025

2/10 Lady of the Garden 🍊

Over ten weeks we’re celebrating a decade of independent print with 10 brilliant features from our archives.

Next up: historian remembers a legend, Nell Gwynn. Exquisite illustration .hensler

From serving strong water in a brothel to selling oranges in the theatre, Nell rose to become Charles II’s most beloved mistress and an enduring icon of wit and charm.

When the king and his brother once took her to dinner without a penny to pay, Nell picked up the bill, quipping in the king’s style: “Od’s fish!, but this is the poorest company I ever was in.” And when a mob mistook her for the Duchess of Portsmouth and jeered at “the King’s Catholic whore,” she leaned from her coach window and declared: “Good people, you are mistaken. I am the Protestant whore.”

Nell’s life was as bold as her tongue. From orange-seller to national treasure, her rise is as dazzling as it is unlikely. Having become a wealthy woman, she was buried in St Martin-in-the-Fields and left instructions for her executors to relive the debtors of the parish every Christmas.

Originally published in Issue 24, with cover art by Pick up your free copy at , , — or order online (link in bio).

10 years ago, we commissioned to create the very first Covent Gardener cover. 10 years on, there was only one choice fo...
26/09/2025

10 years ago, we commissioned to create the very first Covent Gardener cover. 10 years on, there was only one choice for our anniversary issue…Russ again.

I now have both originals, (beautifully framed by ) which will stay with me forever and have pride of place on my walls at home (though finding wall space is becoming a challenge).

How many of you have issue one?

1/10🍍Mud Salad MarketOver the next ten weeks we’ll be celebrating a decade of independent print by sharing 10 brilliant ...
26/09/2025

1/10🍍Mud Salad Market

Over the next ten weeks we’ll be celebrating a decade of independent print by sharing 10 brilliant features from our archives.

First up: Mud Salad Market, by historian Lucy Moore, with illustrations by

Covent Garden began life in the 13th century as the Convent Garden of Westminster Abbey, a kitchen garden and orchard before Henry VIII handed it to the Earls of Bedford. Hard to imagine that little more than fifty years ago, this same place was London’s central fruit, vegetable, and flower market. Traders and flower girls filled the square, selling everything from asparagus to zinnias. The Covent Garden we see today was truly built on mud and straw, fruit and flowers.

Originally published in Issue 5, cover illustrated by Sarah King.

Pick up your free copy or or have it delivered straight to your door by ordering online. Link in bio.

10 years, 10 stories, 1,000 years of Covent Garden history ❤️ Which is your favourite?To mark the milestone, we’ve turne...
23/09/2025

10 years, 10 stories, 1,000 years of Covent Garden history ❤️ Which is your favourite?

To mark the milestone, we’ve turned to our archives and gathered 10 extraordinary stories that together span more than a thousand years of Covent Garden life. From Covent Market and Nell Gwyn to the Plague - it’s all here.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be diving into each one in more depth so we can celebrate the layers of history AND the brilliant artists who’ve brought them to life in these pages.

By now your copy should have arrived, if not, pick up a free one from

I’d love to know: which story has caught your imagination most? And how do you feel about the new format… two bigger issues a year instead of four smaller ones?

Thank you .hensler for the beautiful opener to our archive section, your X is spectacular ❤️

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