1.
MV Queen walking with officials
0.06

2.
MV TRACKING SHOT showing fruit & veg & market workers looking on
0.11

3.
TV Queen & officials looking at stalls
0.18

4.
MVs Library film of porters & sellers pushing barrows at Old Convent Garden (5 shots)
0.35

5.
CU Nun pushing barrow loaded with vegetables
0.45

6.
MV PAN Painted walls round demolition sites
0.51

7.
SV TILT DOWN Empty glass roofed Convent Hall market building
0.58

8.
CU Derelict shops (3 shots)
1.05

9.
CU Window PULL BACK TO children playing football in empty building
1.14

10.
CU Glass blower at work (2 shots)
1.20

11.
MV Derelict building TILT DOWN TO Japanese water garden
1.28

12.
CU Sign Now Convent Garden on lorry PULL BACK TO European lorries (2 shots)
1.33

13.
SV & CU Vegetables in market (2 shots)
1.46

14.
MV Vegetables unloaded & carried from market (2 shots)
1.50

15.
CU & MV Tradesmen (2 shots)
1.57

16.
TV Market area
2.02



Initials BJB/2250 BJB/2310



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Britain's Queen Elizabeth, appropriately wearing a floral dress, today (26 June) officially opened London's new Convent Garden -- the city's traditional fruit, vegetable and flower market.

But though the traditional name remains, the site is new. The market has been moved to a new locality south of the River Thames at Nine Elms.

Unlike the cramped and congested old quarters in central London, the GBP40 million pound new market provides ample space. Fruit and vegetables will be marketed in a new twin-block building, providing plenty of storage space and a controlled temperature. Outside, there's parking room for 2,000 lorries and 1,000 cars.

A few hundred yards away, the huge flower market is housed in an air conditioned hangar-like building.

But there's still a good deal of nostalgia surrounding the ??? Convent Garden site, centred on the famous opera house. The site is one of the most expensive in the world--96 acres worth GBP5 million pounds an acre - and London's authorities had intended it to be used for property development.

After fierce opposition by the small local community, a compromise has been reached. Only a few acres is being redeveloped. Old market buildings are being restored and will form the centrepiece of a pedestrian precinct.

Local people have already managed to pump some life back into empty buildings. The former potato market is being used as a sports centre. One derelict building site has been turned into an attractive--but temporary--Japanese water garden. Housing will eventually be built on the spot.

And while new shops are being opened up in some of the abandoned produce stalls, new crafts are also being introduced--like the Glass House, where a group of young glass blowers have set up business.