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Local Identities Global Challenges

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Local Identities Global Challenges GLOBAL VS LOCAL 99 GLOBAL vs. LOCAL: Exploring Architecture as a Local Brand for Covent Garden KAREN KICE University of California, Los Angeles The decline and subsequent revitalization of urban oping a local brand identity. It will look at how an districts around the world is a common history in urban district can capitalize on the historic past, the life of a city. While the built environment – the using the historic architecture to represent the lo- architecture and streets – may be slow to change or cal identity while simultaneously situating the local seemingly fixed, the activities, social and economic brand for growth and success in the midst of glo- trends, and political action are constantly changing. balization. Looking at Covent Garden in London, it The loss of identity is intrinsically liked to the de- will focus on elements within the retail district that cline of an urban district, and in many cases it is have, in recent years, distinguished the local brand due to the fact that the district, that was once vi- of Covent Garden. brant and thriving, did not keep up with the social, economic, and political changes that influenced and This paper will focus specifically on the retail dis- ultimately supported the vibrancy of the district. In trict of Covent Garden for a variety of reasons. some cases the change is immediate: the move of First, in 1974 the main use of the district, a whole- industrial or wholesale functions, construction of a sale fruit and vegetable garden, was removed over freeway, or a natural or manmade disaster. Regard- night. The immediate removal of the primary ac- less of the cause, whether immediate or gradual, tivity, economic generator, and identity of the dis- part of a successful revitalization includes reclaim- trict is unique to many revitalization schemes and ing or constructing an identity for the district that is created a proactive stance on the development of responsive to contemporary trends and needs, while a new identity. Rather than looking to the past to still maintaining a local integrity. Cities often look to determine the root of decline, the focus was on the the past for solutions to determine what worked and future and how to replace, in a unified manner, the how those elements can be revived, but the shifting hole that was created in Covent Garden. Secondly, nature of economic and social trends do not always Covent Garden has a deeply rooted history that has align with past success. History: the memory, the left traces of this history, layered in the architecture stories, and in many cases the historical architec- throughout the district. And finally, Covent Garden ture can help to form a local identity. is a prime tourist location with a vibrant shopping district that has, in recent years, transitioned from In the past century as shopping has evolved into a district that in the 1980s was described as a an activity of leisure and recreation, retail develop- uniquely local shopping selection: “Instead of the ment has become an inherent part of most urban mass of multiples, which make our high streets re- revitalization schemes, which bring in the com- petitive and boring, the majority of The Market’s fort and familiarity of global brands to help draw a shops are run by individuals who do sell fairly origi- larger audience. With this, a unique, local identity nal goods.”1 To its contemporary state where global is threatened by the homogenization of the global shops are the majority, lining the streets, while the brand. This paper will explore urban revitalization district still maintains a strong local identity. using historic architecture as a method for devel- 100 LOCAL IDENTITIES GLOBAL CHALLENGES Covent Garden also has a long tradition in the per- third of all UK imports passed through Covent Gar- forming arts, with the Royal Opera House and The den Market. Handling over 90 percent9 of the fruit Royal Ballet School located in the district, and has and vegetables consumed in Central London, Cov- maintained an “unbroken association with English ent Garden Market was an integral part in the daily theatre since 1630,” 2 but this paper will focus only lives of Londoners, whether or not they went to the on the retail components of the district. This is not market location. Above all, the Fantus Report rec- to undermine the cultural presence, but to high- ommended a move for the market from it’s central light interesting links related to the relationship of London location to Nine Elms, a site situated along globalized retail district with the local identity es- the Thames, which could support new methods of tablished through historic architecture. containerized shopping. As the containerization of shipping developed, the deep-water port facilities COVENT GARDEN: LOSING INDENTITY, required to accommodate this shipping method REBUILDING IDENTITY were built further downstream, inconvenient to the Central London location of Covent Garden Market.10 Covent Garden has an extensive historical past. The area can be traced back to use as a Roman From 1963 to 1974, the decision to move Cov- settlement in the first century AD, but the name ent Garden Market along with the new location to Covent Garden is derived from its 13th century use house the market was agreed upon and solidified. as a kitchen garden on approximately 40 acres3 for A new state-of-the-art market facility was built in St. Peter’s Convent at Westminster. The current Nine Elms, with efficiency the driving factor in the day typography can be linked the brick wall erected design and development of this facility. The move for the garden within the earlier wood fence perim- on the weekend of November 9th and 10th in 1974, eters of the Covent Garden pasture between 1610 was described by C. Allen and CGM as a simple pro- and 1613 to contain the garden.4 cedure with no disruption in trade, “…there was no hiatus whatsoever in trading. Business ceased at Crops from the early Covent Garden orchard and the old market on Friday 8th November, and traders arable supplied the monk’s table, with surplus fruit then transferred their remaining stocks, ‘tools of and grain were often sold outside the walls of the the trade’, office equipment and other items.”11 The garden to the citizens of London.5 This activity move was fast and easy for business of the whole- evolved into a more formalized marketplace and sale market but had an immense impact on the by 1830, a permanent market building was built Covent Garden district, stripping the primary ac- in Covent Garden, making the location a popular tivity and identity of the past three hundred years wholesale fruit and vegetable market in central from the area. In addition, it removed the mar- London.6 For over a hundred years, the market – keters, many of whom, had grown up in the area, housing the Covent Garden Market Hall – was a frequenting local businesses for food, drink and thriving wholesale market in central London. entertainment – it stripped a historically embedded social structure and community from the area.12 Covent Garden survived World War II, with large parts of London destroyed by bombs, wholesale and The move of the market happened during the post- industrial businesses began moving out of the city. war period, where the trend for development fa- In addition, wholesale trade was becoming more vored the new over the old. It followed a period standardized, and new methods to transport goods of time in which architects questioned the old and made central London locations less convenient for conceptualized plans for the modern city.13 Like- trade. As a result of these shifts, the Fantus Report wise, Patrick Abercrombie developed a post-war was commission in 1963, as a comprehensive study scheme for London that would raze Covent Garden of the Covent Garden wholesale market to deter- in favor of the car, with a traffic interchange meant mine the viability of having this wholesale fruit and to run through the district. The disregard to the old vegetable market location in central London.7 was evident in the initial scheme for Covent Gar- den, which presented a large, monolithic Confer- The Fantus Report revealed the magnitude of trade ence Center and Hotel development. In place of the that existed in Covent Garden Market – far beyond historic architecture, a new, modern building would estimations8 – and the fact that approximately one- cover a majority of the district. GLOBAL VS LOCAL 101 The new plan for the conference center still allowed of structures, but more as a process of building, for the old uses to exist, which was a primary con- a development over a course of time.”16 The com- cern of the community.14 Despite this consideration munity support and overthrow of the monolithic the move and redevelopment proposal proved to development proposed in the 1970s to replace the be too dramatic for the local community. wholesale market retained the historic architec- ture, the layers of time and conglomeration styles Following the Conference Center proposal, the and histories. community responded in strong opposition, ulti- mately defeating this new development in favor of With the physical, there have also been social and restoring the old market hall and developing a new economic shifts and shopping has seeped into our social and retail space: everyday lives, taking form in urban districts and helping to drive urban revitalization. Which Rem “A scheme for restoration commenced in 1975, and is Koolhaas echoes: “Through a battery of increas- expected to be completed in 1979. The building will ingly predatory forms, shopping has been able to be converted into small shops, galleries and work- shops, with studios at first floor level.
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