All Projects
All our new, ongoing and completed projects are listed here, excluding Reconstructing the Historic Sundial Pillar and The Seven Dials Renaissance Study — which have their respective sections on this website.
The Seven Dials Trust continues to work to encourage the use of its Covent Garden Lantern™ throughout Covent Garden and beyond. The original scheme saw the installation of the Trust's bespoke façade-mounted lanterns from Shaftesbury Avenue down to Long Acre in 2014.
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This scheme celebrates the individuals, companies and institutions who have made a contribution to the area and, in some cases, nationally. Over 120 names have been identified and researched in detail by historian Steve Denford, author of The Streets of St Giles. Twenty-eight have been shortlisted by a group of local residents and businesses and trustees. The plaque design, by trustee…
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We are currently in the process of up-dating, amalgamating and expanding the three existing volumes of the Seven Dials Renaissance Study. This will be published as a website, making it accessible to a wider audience. Web designers Radford Wallis have been contracted to design and build the site. The Seven Dials Renaissance Study is the the key document in the work of…
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Our pioneering Seven Dials Renaissance Studies were carried out by a multi-disciplinary team. Francis Golding chaired the Trust's Environment Committee from 1994 and in particular chaired the Monitoring Committee which brought the last edition of the Seven Dials Renaissance Study to fruition. His consummate skills and experience had a great influence on the successful outcome, and his laconic style and…
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The first stage — lighting the dial faces — has now been implemented. Camden removed the ugly lamp columns from around the Dials and replaced them with three elegant 'Brompton' style columns which feature the crest of the old Borough of Holborn. These provide support and power for the brackets holding the spotlights as well as lighting the Dials.
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Street improvements have been a partnership - initially between the Trust, Camden and the Kleinwort Benson Property Fund (KBPF) and latterly with Shaftesbury PLC, the area's major freeholder. Improvements to date have been based on the template set out in the Seven Dials Renaissance Study, which is intended to set high standards for street improvements where London has lagged behind…
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The Seven Dials Exhibition covers history, architecture and horology. The first version was made and sponsored by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. It was displayed so many times that it wore out. A second version was then prepared by Peter Heath, design director of W.S. Atkins. Comprising 36 large laminated boards it has proved more durable. Though many of…
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The Seven Dials template of multi-coloured dressed setts and York Stone has now been copied throughout the West End and has become the standard template for the Covent Garden Area adopted by Westminster City Council in their ‘Westminster Way’ and used by Capco in King Street and TfL in Shaftesbury Avenue.
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A community partnership project, initiated and led by the Trust, with Camden Council, the Corporation of London (advisory), Historic England, Westminster City Council, the Mercers' Company and Shaftesbury PLC. This home-grown project saw the replacement of all lamp columns (except the few remaining historic gas columns) by bespoke façade-mounted lanterns from Shaftesbury Avenue down to Long Acre (the largest area…
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The Trust's street name plates, installed in the summer of 2014, incorporate the Golden Hind symbol of the ancient parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields and feature the historic names of Seven Dials' streets. The project involved a great deal of attention to detail, walkabouts and a long ladder to measure each position before the signs could be ordered. They were manufactured...
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Without any accompanying signage, fluorescent blue rings have appeared on three of London's most prominent columns - in the City, in Covent Garden and just off the Mall. They could be mistaken for those ultraviolet fly zappers popular in kebab shops. But this clever installation marks sea level some thousand years hence. The science is not available to make accurate...
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The Trust took the opportunity of the Sundial Pillar being scaffolded for restoration and cleaning in 2011 to create four 30’ high history banners. They featured: Thomas Neale MP – The Great Projector and creator of Seven Dials; Edward Pierce – the greatest mason and sculptor of the seventeenth century and creator of the Sundial Pillar; Neale’s lotteries and the 1694 Lottery Box and Why Build Seven…
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It is not generally known that the Trust, rather than the local authority, owns the Seven Dials Sundial Pillar and is therefore responsible for its upkeep. High level inspections in 2009 revealed an alarming amount of damage to the dial faces and other carved areas and we embarked on a fund-raising exercise to implement restoration works and re-gilding of the…
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The first People's Plaque to be unveiled in Seven Dials was that commemorating the 'fifth Beatle', the legendary pop impresario and manager Brian Epstein. The plaque is sited at 13 Monmouth Street, where Epstein had an office in 1963-64. Sponsored by Shaftesbury PLC, it was unveiled by another of Epstein's protégées, Sixties pop royalty, Cilla Black, in September 2010. The…
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In 2002, the Trust re-established its partnership with Camden, this time working with Shaftesbury PLC who had become the area's main freeholder. Monmouth Street was chosen as the next thoroughfare for improvement. A major change to the earlier template was the use of dressed setts (flat cobbles) which have numerous advantages over raised ones, including less vehicular noise and an…
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Knight’s London (1842) described Seven Dials as the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon". The wide shop entablatures (the ‘shelves’ above the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century shop fronts), provide perfect sites for window boxes. Taking its cue from this, The Trust offered local residents and businesses ready-planted window boxes at subsidised prices. The scheme was well-received with excellent take up.
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One of the most innovative features of the Seven Dials Renaissance Study is its building-by-building section. Each facade in the area is described in detail and illustrated. Recommendations for improvements are included. Major freeholder Shaftesbury PLC has followed this as guidance on all their properties, many of which are listed. They have invested around £3.5m in these works which range…
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From the seventeenth century to the Second World War, street furniture, including litter bins, bollards, signs, lamps and paving, were considered decorative as well as functional fixtures. The 'carpeting, furnishing and lighting' of a street is as important to the character and use of an area as the interior design of any public building. The Trust believes that everything in…
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In 1991, just as the first Seven Dials Renaissance Study was published, P&O Properties made an application for wholesale demolition of their properties on the north west side of Earlham Street and the south east side of Monmouth Street, a death knell for Seven Dials. To widespread astonishment, these proposals were recommended for approval by officers from both Camden Council…
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In the 1980s, Endell Street, the only ‘boulevard’ type street in the area, was planted with a wide variety of trees, following a well-attended public meeting. This scheme by Camden arboriculturalists has been extremely popular with residents and businesses alike. The Seven Dials Renaissance Study recommended no further planting as it is inappropriate and historically inaccurate. Instead, it recommended a…
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In 1986, the Kleinwort Benson Property Fund (KBPF), then developing a former banana warehouse into the Thomas Neal's Centre, kindly lent us the corner unit facing the Dials for a fundraising pop-up shop. The shop was designed and built by trustee Paul Draper with interior design provided pro bono by Paul Dyson Design.
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Over the years the Trust has received pro bono help from many quarters. Our first exhibition, Architecture, History, Horology, was created by four design students from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. The ROH also created extraordinary facsimiles of the Sundial Pillar and the music for the Royal Unveiling. The exhibition brochure was kindly sponsored by International Banking Information Systems…
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The first Seven Dials Renaissance Study was sponsored by the Kleinwort Benson Property Fund (KBPF) who developed a former banana warehouse, which they re-named Thomas Neale's, for retail, offices and housing. When the Study was published, KBPF, in an unprecedented move, voluntarily increased their S.52 Planning Agreement with Camden Council from £100,000 to £450,000 to implement the Study's recommendations in…
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