Covent Garden Market is believed to be one of the oldest planned shopping districts still in existence. It is located in Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The market consists of an open square (called the Piazza, after the Italian concept) surrounded by restaurants, tea rooms, art galleries, craft shops, and a daily open-air farm market. The current design dates to the 1630s, when Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, received a building permit from King Charles I to construct a piazza and radiating streets according the the designs of the architect Inigo Jones. The site is believed to have been a place of business from at least the 7th Century AD, when Saxons are thought to have established a trading post and new port on the River Thames. Later documents indicate that the area belonged to the Benadictine Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, consisting of about 40 acres within a quadrilateral defined by St. Martin's Lane to the west, Drury Lane to the east, Floral Street to the north and Maiden Lane to the south. During the 16th Century, John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, was given this land by King Henry VIII as reward for service to the Crown, after the dissolution and expulsion of all observant Catholic monasteries during the English Reformation. In 1613, Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford, built Bedford House along the northern side of the Strand at about where Southhampton Street is today as well as the original walls around what had been the garden of the old covent. Following Francis Russell's application in 1631 and its completion by 1634, the location was further improved in 1638 by the building and consecration of St Paul's Church, also designed and built by Inigo Jones. By the 1640s, a vegetable market had risen on the southern part of the Piazza known to be frequented by the diarist and commentator Samuel Pepys. In 1670, King Charles II granted the Russells a royal charter giving them the right to host and oversee a full marketplace and to charge entry fees to the public for access. The original opera house at Covent Garden was built in 1732 and stood unitl 1803 when it burned down and was replaced by a grander structure. In an effort to combat the rise of what was then the new issue of urban crime, John Fielding, a local magistrate, established the Bow Street Runners in 1755. Acting with full court authority on the open streets in the neighborhood, they were the first police force in London and one of the very earliest nonmilitary enforcement bodies in the world. The Bedford family won the right to rebuild and modernize the market in 1828, a task achieved in 1830 with a new market housing designed by Charles Fowler. This structure still exists today with some architectural changes in the late 19th century (providing cast iron and glass roofs) and is considered to be the centre of the area. By 1860, a permanent flower market structure rose on the southeast corner of the square which today is home to the the Transport and Theatre Museums. A second flower market for international blooms opened in 1904 on the south side of the Piazza, later to be called Jubilee Market. Proprietorship of the Covent Garden Market changed during the 20th century, first from the Bedford family (who could no longer manage its finances) to the Covent Garden Estate Company in 1918 and then to the Covent Garden Market Authority in 1962. In 1974, during a period of economic distress, the Greater London Council bought many of the Market buildings and had the traders move out. Physical restoration of the property began in 1975 and finished amid raucous debate over its future use. The Market reopened on 19 June 1980 as the first specially zoned shopping centre in the United Kingdom. Following the abolition of responsible government in Greater London by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (due to her dissatisfaction with municipal corruption and also as a means to harm her political opposition), the new London Residuary Body which took over local affairs in 1986 sought to find a private owner for the Covent Garden Market. The market and many of the most important buildings nearby were bought and consolidated in 1988 by the insurance company Guardian Royal Exchange. In 2000, Guardian sold the Market to Scottish Widows PLC, which together with Henderson Global Investors brought about the creation of the Covent Garden Market Limited Partnership. In 2005, the cultural event magazine Time Out ranked Covent Garden Market as the favourite speciality shopping centre by Londoners. Continued development and gentrification of the area has impacted its historic character somewhat, but not overwhemingly so.