Seven Dials is a small but well-known road junction in the West End of London in Covent Garden where seven streets converge. At the centre of the roughly-circular space is a pillar bearing six (not seven) sundials, a result of the pillar being commissioned before a late stage alteration of the plans from an original six roads.
The term also refers informally to the immediate surrounding area.
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The landed estate belongs to the Worshipful Company of Mercers which allowed building licences on what was open farmland to maximise their income in what was the burgeoning West End of the developing metropolitan area. The original layout of the Seven Dials area was designed by Thomas Neale in the early 1690s. The original plan had six roads converging, although this was later increased to seven. The sundial pillar was built with only six faces, however, probably because of the original design. This number of roads was chosen in order to maximise the number of houses that could be built on the site.
Following the successful development of the fashionable Covent Garden Piazza area nearby, Neale aimed for the Seven Dials site to be popular with well-off residents. This was not to be, however, and the area gradually deteriorated. At one stage, each of the seven apexes facing the column housed a pub. By the nineteenth century, Seven Dials had become one of the most notorious slums in London, being part of the rookery of St Giles. The area was described colourfully by Charles Dickens in his collection Sketches by Boz, which includes the quote:
| “ | The stranger who finds himself in the Dials for the first time...at the entrance of Seven obscure passages, uncertain which to take, will see enough around him to keep his curiosity awake for no inconsiderable time... | ” |
The relatively down-market status of this location is also epitomised by W. S. Gilbert in these lines from Iolanthe:
Hearts just as pure and fair
May beat in Belgrave Square
As in the lowly air of Seven Dials.
It was still a byword for urban poverty in the early-twentieth century, when Agatha Christie set The Seven Dials Mystery (1929) there.
The original sundial column was removed in 1773. It had been believed that this was due to being pulled down by an angry mob, although recent research suggests that it was deliberately removed by the Paving Commissioners in an attempt to rid the area of undesirables. The remains were acquired by architect James Paine, who kept them at his house in Addlestone, Surrey. In 1820, the remains were purchased by public subscription and re-erected in nearby Weybridge, as a memorial to the Princess Frederica, Duchess of York.
Today, Seven Dials is a prosperous, largely commercial, neighbourhood, between the West End theatre district and the fashion-focused shopping district in and around nearby Neal's Yard. Inevitably, the junction of seven roads means the space is dominated by traffic, generally slow-moving in these narrow streets, usually crowded with people. Gentrification has not wiped out all of the urban poverty: street homelessness and drug addiction are still present in the area.
On one of the seven apexes of the junction is a pub, The Crown, with a cafe, Kopapa (Peter Gordon's latest venture) on Monmouth Street;[1] on another apex is Cambridge Theatre. Despite some redevelopment, many of the original buildings remain.
The replacement sundial column was constructed in 1988/89, to the original design. It was unveiled by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, during her visit to commemorate the tercentenary of the reign of William and Mary, during which the area was developed.
The site is managed by Shaftesbury plc who entered into a joint venture with The Mercers Company in November 2005.[2]