Covent Garden

This guide to Covent Garden takes you back to 9 May 1662, when diarist Samuel Pepys watched an Italian puppeteer's show that became the first recorded appearance of Mr. Punch on English soil. From there it traces Inigo Jones's design for London's first public square, the market that grew up around Saint Paul's church, and the centuries of traders and performers who followed. Look up at the ironwork of Charles Fowler's old market roof as you listen.