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.

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.

The western section of Earlham Street was for many years largely given over to food shops and those serving domestic needs. In the 1890s there were two butchers, three grocers, a pastry-cook, a dairy and an ironmonger. No. 14 still bears the advertising sign which proudly hails the first Fred Collins's invention of 'elastic glue'.

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. 

Sadly, very little remains of the original character of Mercer Street (formerly Gt and Little White Lion Streets). The Georgian shopfronts of the chimney sweep, wardrobe dealer, Mr Rocco's Shaving Salon and the bicycle shop have been swept away and only a group of three late 17th century three-storied brick houses remain in the section known locally as Lollipop Hill.

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’.