Covent Garden

Definition

Covent Garden rate

(Adult / Slang)

Quote: Captain Francis Grose. Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811): ' Covent, or Convent Garden, vulgarly called Common Garden. Anciently, the garden belonging to a dissolved monastery; now famous for being the chief market in London for fruit, flowers, and herbs. The theatres are situated near it. In its environs are many brothels, and not long ago, the lodgings of the second order of ladies of easy virtue were either there, or in the purlieus of Drury Lane.' The produce market, established in 1671, was moved to a site on the Thames River in 1974.