Piazza is continued along the Covent Garden entrance, in the shape of a gallery roofed with glass and iron. The main arcades run in a direct line from the entrances, and are surmounted at the point of junction by a lofty dome of 50 feet span, which forms an imposing object in the view. This dome, as well as the roofs, are principally composed of wrought iron; the arches, columns, and piers are of cast iron; the frontage, both in Bow Street and the Piazza, is of iron and glass, of which the entire structure is chiefly composed, brickwork forming but a very small part of the composition. The utmost length of the arcade, from the Bow Street entrance to the west wall, is 227 feet; and the length of the shorter side, from Covent Garden Market to the wall of the theatre, nearly 100 feet. The total height, from the ground to the top of the arched dome, is rather over 90 feet. Each of the main arcades is 75 feet wide, and has a side-aisle between the main columns and the wall, 13 feet in width and 30 feet in height. The entrances are both elegant and simple, the doorways being so deeply recessed as, in conjunction with

the richly designed iron arches which give admission to the interior, to obviate the flat appearance which generally characterises buildings of glass and iron. The interior is fully equal in lightness and grace of design to the exterior. The columns which support the roof are of cast iron, with richly ornamented capitals, the latter perforated, in order to ventilate the basement beneath, with which the hollow columns communicate. The ground having been excavated beneath, the principal floor forms a basement of the same area as the building above it, and 16 feet in height, the floor of the arcade being supported by castiron columns. This building was, as its

name implies, designed for a market."

flower

It was opened on March 7, 1860, with a Volunteer ball, under the patronage of Royalty, and for a time was employed for promenade concerts. It was afterwards made the principal market for those salesmen who had previously been engaged in the sale and distribution of foreign fruit in the market and whose accommodation was insufficient to cope with the fast-in

creasing qualities of foreign and colonial fruit.

It has been used for this purpose since that date, and it is here that the principal sales are held. The original idea of the flower-market was carried out by the erection of another imposing structure in the south-east part of the market.

CHAPTER IX

Drury Lane-Craven House-Olympic and Globe Theatres -Madame Vestris-William, Lord Craven, and the Thirty Years' War-Terrible condition of Drury Lane in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries-Celebrated inhabitants of former days-Nell Gwynn-Mrs. Bracegirdle-The Cockpit Theatre-Pepys' notes on its destruction-Davenant and Betterton-First Drury Lane Theatre-Theatre in Portugal Row-Burning of Drury Lane Theatre-Sheridan and the House of Commons-The present building-Its recent escape from destruction-Celebrated players at Drury LanePlaygoing in the time of Charles II.-Present-day scenes-Christmas pantomime-Outbreak of the Great Plague-Vinegar Yard and the Whistling Oyster-Old burial-ground in Russell Court.

STOW ascribes the name of this thoroughfare to the fact that the residence of the Drurie, or Drury, family was there situated. Some authorities are of opinion that this house was built by Sir W. Drury in the reign of Elizabeth; while Mr. Charles Gordon, in his "Old-time Kingsway and Aldwych and Neighbourhood," states that

it was built generations before this date by a Sir Roger Drury, who died in 1495.

In spite of the difference of opinion as to the original builder, it is certain that the house existed as a residence. It was situated on the site of the old Olympic Theatre, and was eventually known as Craven House, pulled down in 1803. The Olympic Theatre was built two years later by Philip Astley, and like its neighbour, the Globe, has now disappeared. It was burnt down on March 29, 1849, but was reconstructed and re-opened at the end of that year. Cunningham states that the original house was constructed from the timbers of a French warship, the Ville de Paris. The masts of the vessel formed the flies, and, when the fire took place, they were seen still erect long after the roof had fallen in. The celebrated Madame Vestris was responsible for much of the success which this theatre enjoyed.

The most celebrated tenant of Craven House was William, Lord Craven, who showed conspicuous bravery at the battle of Creutznach in 1632, during the Thirty Years' War.