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.

William Hodge's extraordinary painting of Seven Dials, created in 1776, just after the Sundial Pillar's removal, looking towards Mercer Street with the Crown public house on the right hand side. (Courtesy of the Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre Library, London Borough of Camden).

Circa 1910. A view of the corner of Earlham Street (west) and Mercer Street (north). On the left of the picture some of the Earlham Street market stalls are visible. On the right, buildings of the original scale of Thomas Neale's plan meet the Victorian larger-scale redevelopment following the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue.

1874 print. In mid-Victorian times Seven Dials was well known for its Bird Fair and the sale of animals. (Courtesy of the Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre Library, London Borough of Camden).

Circa 1880 photograph looking north up Monmouth Street. The Crown public house has hardly changed except for the removal of its dome, topped by a large crown. The Grapes public house is now a shop unit at the apex of the Thomas Neal's development, completed in 1992. 

Edward Pierce (1630-1695) designed the centrepiece of Seven Dials - its elegant sundial pillar. Pierce was the leading sculptor of the seventeenth century and a renowned architect and stonemason. He came to prominence as a sculptor after the Great Fire of London, when he was ‘much employed by Sir Christopher Wren in his carvings and designs.’ Pierce’s best-known works as a sculptor are the carved busts of Oliver Cromwell and Christopher Wren, both in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Edward Pierce by Isaac Fuller (1606-1672), courtesy of Sudeley Castle.

Pierce was employed by Wren for masonry work and designs for many of the City churches and for St Paul’s Cathedral. He also undertook wooden carvings at various churches, including the wooden model for the copper dragon weathervane at St Mary-le-Bow. His greatest work as an architect was the Bishop’s Palace at Lichfield, built under his supervision to his designs 1686-87.

Pierce died in 1695 at Surrey Street near the Thames and was buried at St Clement Danes Church, The Strand. He left an important collection of books, prints and drawings. The original drawing of the Seven Dials Sundial Pillar, now held in the British Museum, may have come from this collection. The Trust rediscovered this drawing which our architect, A.D. Mason of Whitfield Partners, used when researching the proportions of the new Sundial pillar.

Contracts under Sir Christopher Wren at:

St Lawrence Jewry (masonry and woodcarving) — 1671-81

St Clement Danes (masonry) — 1680-82

St Mathew, Friday Street, (including carved font) — 1682-?

St Andrew, Holborn, (including carved font) — 1684-?

St Paul’s Cathedral — various dates

Hampton Court (carved marble vases)

Model for dragon of St-Mary-le-Bow steeple

Work under William Winde at:

Combe Abbey, Warwickshire — 1682-3

Hampstead Marshall, Berkshire — 1661

Busts of:

Oliver Cromwell (National Portrait Gallery)

John Milton (Christ College, Cambridge)

Sir Christopher Wren (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

Baldwin Hamey (Royal College of Physicians)

Thomas Evans

Other works:

The Bishop’s Palace, Lichfield (architect) — 1686-7

The Pillar Sundial, Seven Dials (architect & mason) — 1694

Coopers’ Hall — 1671-2

Grocers’ Hall — 1680-4

The Guildhall — 1671

Emmanuel College, Cambridge — 1670

Wolseley Hall (demolished), Staffordshire (woodcarving) — 1686

Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire (staircase) — 1676-7

Winchester College (wood panelling, now in New Hall) — 1681

The Bishop’s Palace, Cathedral Close, Lichfield, by Edward Pierce, c1687. Courtesy of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.

'The Great Projector', creator of Seven Dials, Thomas Neale was an MP for 30 years, Master of the Mint and of the Transfer Office, Groom Porter, gambler and entrepreneur. His projects ranged from the development of Seven Dials, Shadwell (including brewing and Navy victualling), East Smithfield and Tunbridge Wells, to land drainage, steel and papermaking, mining in Maryland and Virginia, raising shipwrecks, to developing a dice to check cheating at gaming. He was also the author of numerous tracts on coinage and fund-raising and was involved in the idea of a National Land Bank, the precursor of the Bank of England. The extent of his interests - as a prominent Hampshire figure, as a member of the Royal Household, as a long-standing MP serving on dozens of Committees and as the promoter of an extraordinary plethora of projects - is difficult to comprehend.