WELCOME TO ISSUE 36…

Ten years, thirty-six issues. Hundreds of articles. Thousands of commissioned illustrations. If print years were like dog years, we’d be 70 by now, and still barking up every tree in Covent Garden.

Keeping an independent print magazine going for a decade, especially one that celebrates a single neighbourhood, is no small feat. This issue is a tribute to the artists, writers, neighbours, and friends who’ve made every page possible.

Russ Tudor, our first cover artist, returns for this anniversary issue. His illustrations, along with Clive Boursnell’s photographs from the 60s and 70s, and the sharp, brilliant writing of Mick O’Hare and Lucy Moore have helped shape the magazine’s voice and visual language.

This issue features 10 favourite stories from the past decade, chosen by you. We asked for your top picks, and these are the ones you wanted to bring back. From Eliza James the Watercress Queen to the plague and everything in between.

Charlie Parsons, award-winning television producer and neighbour, reflects on all 36 of our covers. And there’s a feature on the Covent Garden Area Trust, which I’m proud to be part of.

Along the way, this magazine has opened doors I never expected, from interviewing Oscar-nominated Richard E. Grant to mudlarking on the Thames and uncovering lost Fleet Street type. We’ve explored everything from Covent Garden bananas to crime, punishment, and love. Themes that started playfully often led us somewhere profound.

Rules, London’s oldest restaurant, has kindly hosted many parties for us over the years, all thanks to the ever-generous Ricky McMenemy. (And while it’s only September, it’s never too early to book your Christmas table, there’s nowhere more special!) One of our proudest moments was seeing Milton Glaser’s “I❤CG” cover, created especially for us, projected onto the doors of the Royal Opera House. That same issue now lives in the archives of the School of Visual Arts in New York.

This magazine was launched with the belief of my father, the Piero behind Piero Publishing, who saw what it could be from the start. The portrait of us together (below) feels especially right.

For five years, I’ve run the Magazine Club at St George’s Primary School in Mayfair, and now we’re beginning a new chapter at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House, Park Lane (see p47). When you build a magazine (no matter the age), with conviction and care, communities connect in the most unexpected and meaningful ways.

To Rachel Meddowes, who’s been here since day one and held my hand tightly on many an occasion, thank you Rachel… and to every contributor, illustrator, printer, friend, and believer, thank you.
Fifteen years living in Covent Garden. Ten years publishing The Covent Gardener.

Here’s to the next chapter.