Originally called Little Earl Street, the south side of this stretch of Earlham Street still retains the scale and plot sizes of the original Seven Dials development, though none of the buildings would now seem to date from the late-17th century. The earliest buildings date from the late-18th or early-19th century with substantial 20th century reconstruction.
This section of Earlham Street was for many years largely given over to food shops and those serving domestic needs, including a street market. Portwines butchers (founded in 1820s) and F.W. Collins & Sons ironmongers (founded in 1835) both continued trading into the new millennium and their signs can still be seen.
