Digital Doors Open: Going to the Market

For my Digital Landscaping/ Doors Open project I have chosen to focus on London Ontario’s Covent Garden Market. From its creation in 1835 to the present day, the market has been an important feature of downtown London. It has developed from being a main site of commerce to a place of culture and a reflection of local heritage. Over the 179 years of its existence, Covent Garden Market has changed in a variety of ways. This project is aimed at tracking how this site has evolved while also exploring its historical significance.

A Brief History of the Market

Named after the Covent Garden Market of London, England the first marketplace of London, Ontario was situated within the courthouse grounds. In 1835 the Crown issued a patent which granted the municipality of London the right to hold a “Public Fair or Mart”. Generous shop owners and businessmen donated the back sections of their properties to use as a market center. This “Market Square” was bound by King, Dundas, Richmond and Talbot Street and remains on this site to the present day. On November 1, 1845 a small market house was built with money collected by local donations.

Market Square, 1875
http://www.coventmarket.com/history/

In March of 1853 the London Council purchased more land in order to expand the market and to erect a new City Hall on Richmond Street which backed onto the Market Square. The new market, designed by city architect Samuel Peters, was a storey-and-a-half, yellow brick building. The new market was topped by a cupola with a bell tower. This bell tower was later lost sometime before 1923.

Paul Peel's Painting of Covent Garden Market in 1883,
http://www.coventmarket.com/history/

In the mid-twentieth century the growing popularity of automobiles resulted in difficulty with parking in downtown London. In 1953 the citizens of London voted to have a private corporation construct a new market and a parking building. The new building was gradually built and completed in 1956 and the old structure was demolished. It only took a few more years for the parking to expand and in 1958 two more levels were added to the parking building.

Aerial view of Covent Garden Market 1953,
http://www.coventmarket.com/history/

On October 21, 1999 a new market was erected in the place of the old market and the parking facilities which had become obsolete. It had half the parking space as before and was designed by London architect Russ Scorgie with Paul Peel’s paining of the 1853 market clearly in mind.

The Process

For my project I am planning on using a variety of digital tools to highlight how the Market has changed over time. I will use Google Earth and SketchUp to create a 3D historical representation of the Market Square site. Materials such as historical photographs, aerial photographs and fire insurance plans will help me to complete this digital reconstruction. I want to use these images to create an overlay of images that will visualize the changes to the site.

I will also make use of the application TimelineJS to create a multimedia timeline of how the site has changed over the past 179 years. This will include primary source materials such as photographs and eye-witness descriptions of the market. This timeline will be used to help tell the story of the market and how Londoners felt about it. It will work alongside the visual recreation to give the audience an in-depth understanding of how the site has changed and its cultural significance to London, Ontario.

I am hoping to use this digital recreation and the timeline of Covent Garden Market in a larger project. For our second Digital History Project we will be tasked with creating a web site. For now, my current plan is to create a website that does a historical walking tour of downtown London. Due to my Research Assistantship at Eldon House I am planning on having this online tour reflect areas around London that the Harris family would have regularly visited. Covent Garden Market’s reconstruction would therefore be a key component to this walking tour. 

Works Cited

Covent Garden History http://www.coventmarket.com/history/

McColl Lindsay, Ann. “Going to the Market: Grocers, Hawkers and Wholesalers”. Downtown London: Layers of Time. Ed. Michael Baker (London: City of London), 2000.

Going Digital: An Evaluation of the Role of the Digital World to the Public Historian

How do I see digital tools and approaches affecting my current and future practice of public history?

The question above was thrown out to my colleagues and I to ponder and post about on our various blogs. When I think about digital tools the first things that come to mind are the resources I used during my undergraduate degree. During the beginning of my university education, my digital resources were relatively minimal (I did not regularly bring a laptop to class until fourth year!). I was an avid user of the UWO library catalogue to find books, but that is where my use of the library’s resources ended. I was not aware that the library could provide me access to a variety of databases until the end of my second year (even then it took some time to learn how to use them correctly). By the end of my undergraduate degree I had learned to use online archives, online databases, library catalogues, etc.  

While I still regularly accessed the physical library, these resources proved invaluable and allowed me to conduct research from the comfort of my own home. They also allow historians in general the ability to conduct original research without having to go directly to an archive or library. This can prove handy when, for example, a Canadian historian is conducting research on medieval France. Digital archives save them the expense of making a lengthy overseas trip. In the future, I predict that such online resources will continue to be valuable to historical researchers and that the technology will improve, becoming more user friendly and easily accessible.

With that said, if a historian was to never leave their office again to conduct their research they would be missing out on an important opportunity. Handling materials in their physical forms is an experience every historian should have.

Due to being a public historian, I am constantly interacting with the digital tools of social media. From Facebook to Twitter, from blog sites to Tumblr, a knowledge of how to operate and maintain social media is a must for any public historian. As previously mentioned in my introductory post, it is the responsibility of the public historian to build bridges between the realm of academia and the general public. I believe that these social media sites not only make the construction of these bridges easier but allows a public historian access to a wider audience.

Take for example Twitter. This site, used by millions of people, allows for the transfer of snippets of information. This can be a great way to advertise events and introduce new ideas.

The above Twitter post is an example of how historians
can use social media to advertise historical events.

The 140 character maximum allows the site to distinguish itself from others while ensuring that all information is concise and pointed.

The digital world has become essential to public historians. Not only does it provide convenience when conducting historical research but it emphasizes the “public” part of “public historian”. I foresee the importance of digital technologies to the role of the public historian growing exponentially, providing new historical and social applications.

For additional reading on the role of the digital world please check out these links:

William Turkel's "Going Digital"
History of the Internet