Covent Garden Street Circus

The fruit and veg market moves out of Covent Garden and the street artists move in. Alternative Arts, a community organisation and production company founded by Maggie Pinhorn, form the Covent Garden Street Theatre and then in 1981 are invited by the city to develop Covent Garden as a year-round site for street theatre. Many jugglers, stilt walkers, tightrope walkers and acrobats cut their teeth in the square, including The Amazing Mendezies, Cunning Stunts, Pope & Crocker, and Pookiesnackenburger (pictured) (the early incarnation of Stomp). Alternative Arts go on to form Circus UK, and Maggie Pinhorn will later create Circus Senso with the producer and creative director Jenny Harris.