Seven Dials Trust, Covent Garden

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Seven Dials Trust, Covent Garden

A unique Central London Trust which has been instrumental in urban public realm regeneration.

Our story began in 1977 when Seven Dials was in a state of dereliction, with 90% of the housing stock having lain vacant for more than 40 years in anticipation of wholesale demolition and redevelopment. To kick start the process of regeneration and encourage private investment, Camden Council established The Seven Dials Housing Action Area (1977-1984) - six residents and six businesses supported b

y a group of Camden officers. Grants were made available to freeholders and the local authority could, in extremis, undertake works. Our HAA had great success, with over 200 residential units rehabilitated, initial public realm improvements implemented and further public and private housing secured. On the expiration of the HAA we were invited by Camden's CEO to set up a group to continue further improvements in the area and to reinstate the lost Seven Dials Sundial Pillar. This group became a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, known first as The Seven Dials Monument Charity (1984) and then The Seven Dials Trust (2003). The Trust has established a fruitful and exemplary partnership between the voluntary sector, local authorities and the private sector, driving complex, long-term projects to completion through changing political priorities and ownerships. We have initiated and raised funds for projects designed to celebrate and enhance the distinct identity of Seven Dials. Our work has encouraged substantial investment in the public realm from the private sector. The Trust’s vision is set out in the Seven Dials Renaissance Study. The Trust is managed by a board of trustees, some of whom have long links with Covent Garden, going back to the days of the famous 1971 Covent Garden Public Inquiry, when much of the area was scheduled to be demolished. This continued commitment is invaluable due to the long-term nature of many of our projects. When funds are available, the Trust employs a part-time Coordinator. We are grateful to all our funders and supporters – the many generous individuals, local and national agencies, organisations and companies who have contributed to our work since 1984. In addition to sponsorship and grant-aid this support includes thousands of hours of unpaid work, pro bono expert advice and in-kind contributions.

30/04/2026

The lost almshouses and dwellings of Middle Row, St Giles.
On a 1720 parish map of St Giles, just east of St. Giles-in-the-Fields church lay the dwellings of Middle Row and the parish almshouses. These were two isolated blocks of houses in the middle of the main Broad St Giles thoroughfare (now St. Giles High Street).
The almshouses (marked blue on the 1720 map) were built in 1656 to accommodate aged widows of the parish, who were each given 7 farthings per day beside 'coal and other bounties'. Previously the village pound had stood on this new almshouse site and had been moved to what we now call St. Giles Circus (roughly where Centrepoint is now). In 1783, the St Giles almshouses were rebuilt and the tenants moved to Lewknor's Lane or present-day Macklin Street. They are still there today.
The almshouses and Middle Row (brown on the parish map) are already in existence on the Wencelaus Hollar map (created between 1660-66) but neither appear on the Faithorne and Newcourt map of 1658, so it can be assumed roughly when these buildings were erected.
Middle Row.
There are only a couple of recorded occupants listed as living at Middle Row: in 1675, one of the dwellings was occupied by a Lady Katherine Cope. However by 1835, Middle Row was a far less desirable address and the central house in the Row was taken by Apted's 'fresh and shell fishmongers'.
By the 19th century, the dwellings were known as Middle Row Bloomsbury to distinguish them from the more famous Row at High Holborn. They were finally pulled down in the 1840s to allow the new Endell Street to be cut through.

16/04/2026

50 Years of Punk: The dawning of Punk and The Roxy Club, 41-43 Neal Street, 1976-78
In the early 70s London was gloomy, grimy, impoverished and still pockmarked with World War ll bomb damage. Seven Dials had served the famous Covent Garden Market since 1670 and the 18th century streets of the area were unchanged, full of old warehouses and shops with underground spaces for produce storage. In 1974 the area changed completely when the market moved to Nine Elms at Vauxhall. This noisome area that for 24 hours a day bustled with commerce and trade, where lorries and barrows jostled for space within its packed streets, became silent literally overnight. A vacuum was left which was soon filled by artists, creative industries and clubs.

The embryonic Punk scene can be traced back to 1975 and gay club Chagueramas, the forerunner of the Roxy Club. The club was drawing early punks, called the ‘Bromley Contingent’ - Siouxsie and Steve Severin (who formed Siouxsie & the Banshees), Soo Catwoman, Gene October (Chelsea) and even John Beverley (or Sid Vicious of S*x Pistols). These LGBTQIA+ clubs (Chagueramas and Louise’s, a Le***an club in Poland Street) provided a safe haven to relax and a place for an early punk scene to evolve.
By late 1976, Chagueramas was facing closure when Gene October proposed it as a possible new Punk venue to Andrew Czezowski and business partner Barry Jones. They named the new club, The Roxy and it gave early Punk bands a much-needed venue to play in.
The Seven Dials Trust ‘People’s Plaque’ for The Roxy Club can be found at 41-43 Neal Street - this was unveiled in April 2017 by (The Slits) (Pe*******on) (The Adverts)

01/04/2026

Charles Knight, Knight's 'London' and the education of the children of St. Giles.
Charles Knight (15 March 1791 – 9 March 1873) was an English publisher, editor and author. In the 19th century, Knight published a variety of illustrated works, including a nine volume comprehensive cyclopaedia of the city of London, known as Knight's 'London'. These featured many illustrations and were originally published between the years 1841-44. The books were a commentary on important landmarks, antiquities, buildings, institutions, infrastructure, topography, development, and the social conditions at the time of publication.
In 1842, Knight featured the area of St Giles and discussed its history, its people, the Rookery, Seven Dials, the print trade and gin. He also described the lack of education available to the children of the poor within the area:
'Let us not forget the education of St. Giles's; for however little is done in that sacred cause, the forms of it now everywhere gone through with most edifying hypocrisy. In (New or maybe Little) Compton Street is a sign-board, "Infants' School," but whether this inscription relates to what is or what was, it were hard to say. At the lower end of Monmouth Street (present-day Shaftesbury Avenue) is a cellar into which a crowd of children are duly packed in the morning to keep them from amongst the horses' feet during the day; and at the upper end of George (now Dyott) Street may be seen the firmly-bolted doors of "St. Giles's Irish Schools," confronting the "Catholic School of St. Francis," with its brown and torn hats stuck through the broken panes of glass in its windows. There is here just enough of the appearance of education to remind us that there is such a thing elsewhere, if it should for a moment escape our memory.'

20/03/2026

John Logie Baird (1888-1946) and 100 years of television!

Recently we celebrated 100 years of the birth of television in Britain. On Tuesday 26th January 1926, the entrepreneurial inventor John Logie Baird invited distinguished guests from the Royal Institution to witness a demonstration at his workshop in Soho (above present day Bar Italia on Frith Street). They were gathered to observe Logie Baird demonstrate 'The Televisor' the first practical television apparatus for the instantaneous transmission of scenes or objects over a distance by wire or wireless.
Baird founded Television Ltd in Soho in 1925 but the following month after his demonstration, he moved his company to the upper floor of Motograph House (often listed as in Upper Saint Martins' Lane) and was here until January 1928, when he moved to No.133 Long Acre, where there is also a plaque to him.
Logie Baird's 2TV 250 watt station was eventually licensed in August 1926 and he began transmitting from Motograph House experimentally that autumn - three years before his work with BBC.

The Seven Dials Trust 'People's Plaque' for John Logie Baird can be found at Nos.2-6 West Street, abutting Upper St Martin's Lane, formerly Motograph House
Dates: 1926-28
It was kindly sponsored by Mark Read, a Seven Dials Trust trustee.

02/03/2026

At 33 Neal Street there is a Seven Dials Trust 'People's Plaque' commemorating Ellen Keeley & Co., who invented and produced the famous costermonger barrow used at Covent Garden and other markets. This barrow-making firm was established in Ireland in 1830 but 33 Neal Street was their business premises from 1900 - 1982!
The Keeley family came to London at the time of the potato famine and lived in nearby Nottingham Court - in fact census records reveal that by 1891 James was living at 12 Nottingham Court and his elderly mother Ellen, at No.8. It was James Keeley that invented and produced the costermonger's barrow - like a shop on wheels - and also the donkey barrow, once a familiar sight in London. By the 1960s the company had branched out into hiring their vehicles to the film and television industries from Keeley Hire in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

20/02/2026

Our Street History Plaque for Monmouth Street records some notable residents of the 18th and 19th centuries!
If you take a walk from The Dials to Shaftesbury Avenue (along what was formerly known as Great St. Andrew's Street), you might wish to reflect that during the 18th century this part of the street was home to many Huguenot craftsmen, such as the watchmaker Francis Barraud, whose firm of chronometer makers survived into the late Victorian period. Alongside the watch and clock makers were wood carvers and picture framers.
Seven Dials was the 18th century haunt of numerous astrologers, infamous quack doctors and mystics, including Duncan Campbell, a soothsayer who claimed to have been born in Lapland!
From 1760 to 1781, No.31 was the workshop of Stephen Rimbaud, a noted Huguenot clockmaker, whilst No.33 was the business address of Johnny Pitts, whose company Pitt's Toy and Marble Warehouse, was the oldest seller of street ballads in the area and his famous business is referenced by Charles Dickens in 'Sketches by Boz'. The Crown public house, which has been on this spot since at least as long ago as 1700, forms one of the wedge-shaped buildings fronting the Dials.
By the 19th century, this section of Monmouth Street had become much poorer, for the street was lined with down-at-heel shops, many selling birds and bird cages, cats and dogs. The area is of course infamous for overcrowded dwellings - in the 1890s, No.15 housed no fewer than 35 people!

29/01/2026

Seven Dials Trust ‘People’s Plaque’: Elsa Lanchester and The Cave of Harmony, 1927-28
Location: No.31 Earlham Street (on Seven Dials). Until 1938 No.1 Great Earl Street.

The Bunch of Grapes public house on Seven Dials was licensed as a hostelry until 1919 and traces of this can still be seen on the decorative tiles on the facade. During the 1920s it housed a succession of clubs which were closed down by police as they held no drinking licence.
In September 1927 another club successfully applied to use the premises, claiming it was for theatrical and artistic people who would present no trouble. This was the Cave of Harmony, founded in Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia in 1924 by a young Elsa Lanchester (later famous in films as The Bride of Frankenstein) and her then partner, Harold Scott. She sang from print songs they had collected such as 'Please Sell No More Drink to My Father' and they performed one-act plays at midnight, often assisted by famous artistes after the nearby theatres had closed.
The Cave of Harmony was a popular meeting place for London intellectuals, including H G Wells, Aldous Huxley and Evelyn Waugh. Elsa made little money out of it and supplemented her income by posing as correspondent in divorce cases. She closed it down in late 1928 after she took up with Charles Laughton.
Photos: Elsa Lanchester in 1935
The Bunch of Grapes (right), Seven Dials, 1890

20/01/2026

A tribute to Sir Terry Farrell, architect, 1938-2025.

Last year our Seven Dials Trust trustees, especially those founders who knew Terry, were much saddened to learn of his passing on 28th September 2025.

Terry Farrell and Comyn Ching Court:

‘Much will be written about his work all over the world. However, many of us knew Terry via his work on the Comyn Ching Triangle, a project which spanned ten years. It was probably the most successful conservation and regeneration project during the period of the Covent Garden Plan. His pride in this project was evident on a guided tour he gave a group a few years ago. As you can see from the picture (below), this site was in a state of dereliction when his project began, and its success was due to his meticulous attention to detail.
We all enjoyed working with Terry on this project, where he clearly enjoyed engaging with us and others. He will be sadly missed by all those who knew him, and the vast range of his worldwide work will stand as a tribute to his inventiveness for many years to come’.

- David Bieda, Chair, the Seven Dials Trust

30/12/2025

In October, the Seven Dials Trust was invited to the launch of John Dore's new novel, 'SEVEN DIALS – The Past, The Present, and The Puzzle of Thomas Neale', which combines meticulous historical research with the fictional world of “Questors,” a global network of alternative history sleuths.

'SEVEN DIALS – an enigmatic London district where time, place,
and hidden secrets converge. Journalist Alison Hill thought it was a routine reporting assignment, but when she witnesses Brad Sayers’s sensational discovery in Seven Dials, she becomes the target of an ancient Guild that will stop at nothing to bury the past. Forming an uneasy alliance with Brad, she is drawn into a shadowy network of alternative history sleuths known as “Questors”, and a desperate race to solve an unbreakable puzzle that spans 300 years, from the glittering court of Charles II to the gritty estates of East London.
At the heart of this enigma lies Thomas “Golden” Neale, a
visionary entrepreneur who transformed a neglected district into
Seven Dials, defying powerful enemies and preserving an invaluable secret for generations to come.
Alison’s savvy intelligence and daring are tested to the limit as she unearths a world where lost knowledge challenges everything she thought possible. Her quest will forever change how you see London’s hidden history and the secrets still concealed beneath its streets.'

SEVEN DIALS is available to pre-order now from Troubador, uk.bookshop.org, Amazon, Waterstones, Foyles, and all good booksellers.

Photo: Launch image - Jozef Gwizdala

24/12/2025

Seasons greetings to everyone from the Seven Dials Trust! Again this year we have some lovely Xmas lights crowning the Sundial Pillar! We wish you all a Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

15/12/2025

Long Acre: From pastures to the motor trade!
The Trust’s Street History Plaques tell the story of the creation of our unique quarter of London with interesting information on each street, including the architecture and past inhabitants and businesses.
Long Acre was given its name in the time of Charles l, after the length of a pathway across the land. Beginning in 1614, it rapidly transformed from pasture and meadow into a cosmopolitan thoroughfare, with ‘mansion houses fit for the habitations of Gentlemen & men of ability’. In 1755, a survey of the estate shows Long Acre already dominated by the coach building industry, with large workshops of master coach-builders intermingled with smaller workshops for ancillary crafts such as harness-makers, joiners and wheelwrights. A notable figure of Long Acre was Lionel Lukin (1742-1834), who was for many years a fashionable London coach builder. Lukin was also an inventor who patented an ‘unsubmergible’ boat, the very first lifeboat! The coach-building trade continued to thrive in Long Acre late into the 19th century.
In 1906, 41 buildings in the street were still occupied by firms associated with transport, a mixture of traditional coach-builders and those connected with the newly emerging motor trade. By 1916 the transition to motor cars and related trade was almost complete, with showrooms for Austin Motors, Mercedes Benz, Daimler and Fiat.

The Trust’s Street History Plaque for Long Acre can be seen upon the wall opposite Covent Garden tube station and outside Boots.

Photos: View of Mr Hatchett’s House in Long Acre, 1783 - Courtesy of The Royal Collection
Austin Motors showroom at 134 Long Acre, c.1910 - Creative Commons License

30/11/2025

Queen Anne's Bath of Endell Street!
'At No.3 Endell Street (formerly Old Belton Street), in the rear of the premises occupied by Messrs. King, ironmongers, is an ancient bath, said by local tradition to have been used by Queen Anne, which for the most part has escaped the notice of antiquaries. It was fed by a fine spring of clear water, which was said to have medicinal qualities. Whether it was the favourite bagnio of Queen Anne or not, it certainly is a curious relic of other days, though shorn of its ancient glories.' - 'Old and New London' - Walter Thornbury, published in six volumes, 1873-78.

Queen Anne’s 'bath' was situated almost at the junction of present day Long Acre and Endell Street (see my adaptation of St Giles Parish map, 1866) and could be reached by descending a dark and narrow staircase which went into a 'low apartment, about twelve or fourteen feet square, its walls inlaid with Dutch tiles, white with blue patterns'. These tiles dated from the 16th century and above them was a "lofty French groined dome roof." 'A View of Old London', published in 1851, reported that the bath was said to be "supplied direct from the spring, which is perpetually running; the water is always fresh, and is much used in the neighbourhood, where it is considered to be a good cure for rheumatism and other disorders. It is a powerful tonic, and evidently contains a considerable trace of iron."
The ‘bath’ became disused by the late 19th century when the upper part of the chamber was cut off by modern flooring and a blacksmith's forge built above. Then the spring dried up (presumably the water course altered to supply the forge), the Dutch tiles were repurposed elsewhere and very sadly, the lower part of the chamber became filled with rubbish.

Queen Anne’s Bath image courtesy Camden Local Studies & Archives Centre

Address

Seven Dials, Covent Garden
London
WC2H9

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+442074375512

Website

http://www.sevendials.com/

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