Seven Dials Covent Garden is a unique quarter of London whose star-shaped layout remains as constructed in the early 1690s. It was brought back to life largely through the dedication of the Seven Dials Trust, working in partnership with the local authorities and landowners for nearly forty years.

During the 18th century, Monmouth Street (formerly Gt St Andrew's Street) was home to many skilled Huguenot craftsmen, including eminent clockmakers but by the 19th century it was lined with down-at-heel shops, many selling birds, cats and dogs. 

On either side of what is now Short's Gardens lay the cultivated grounds of William Short, gardener of Grays Inn who, in 1590, purchased fields known as Newland between Drury Lane and the Marshland. The Short family were prominent parishioners of St Giles until Thomas Short sold the property around 1690 and it became part of Thomas Neale's Seven Dials development.

Seven Dials is the only quarter of London remaining from late Stuart England. Its star shaped layout is unaltered and many of the original houses remain, mostly refaced in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was one of the many creations of an extraordinary man — Thomas Neale MP (1641-99) — ‘The Great Projector’.