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The
Longest day of the
year
Every year Covent
Garden Market hosts a procession organized
by Covent Garden Area Trust to deliver
payment of the rent to the various
landlords: KBC Asset Management, Scottish
Widows and Henderson Global and this year
the event takes place on the Summer
solstice.
The rent ceremony has
become a popular event in the calendar as
members of the public are invited to join
Trustees in delivering the rent of five
rosy red apples and five posies of blooms.
This 'peppercorn rent' salutes Covent
Garden's historic fruit and flower market
which used to stand here and supplied all
of London and the home counties with fresh
greengroceries and floral ornaments. In a
nice gesture of solidarity the rents are
supplied by the New Covent Garden Market
near Battersea.
This year's rent
ceremony will start from the Trust's
office in New Row 16:30 on 21 June
arriving in the Piazza just before 17.00
and proceedings will be overseen as ever
by London's Town Crier will call upon the
brass band to pause their tooting and two
Trustees will step forward to present an
apple or a nosegay to a representative
from from the relevant
landlord.
All the while,
crocodiling behind the Trustees and there
will be a growing number of well-wishers.
This rather quaint event is a good
opportunity to show our collective pride
in Covent Garden and everyone is invited
to come along.
If you are around on
the day and have never witnessed the rent
ceremony, do yourself a favour and join
the happy swell: if you have to sneak off
work early or miss the second half of
Angola v Iran then do it, everyone who has
an interest in Covent Garden should
experience this event at least
once.
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 GEOFFREY
HOLLAND AND LEANA POOLEY OF COVENT GARDEN
AREA TRUST WITH TOWN CRIER, PETER
MOORE
AMANDA PHILLIPS, COVENT GARDEN MARKET
MANAGER RECIEVES HER POSY
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