No. 2, Short’s Gardens

The Dials / Seven Corners Fronting the Dials: No. 2, Short’s Gardens
Earlham House
Mercer Street Hotel
The Crown
2 Short's Gardens
Cambridge Theatre
45 Monmouth Street
Fielding Court

Designations

Listing
Grade II
Building of Merit
No
Shopfront of Merit
No

Appraisal

No. 2, Short's Gardens

Occupying a key site on the eastern side of The Dials at the junction of Short’s Gardens and Earlham Street, with formal elevations on all three street frontages, the former The Grapes public house of 1835 is listed at grade II.

With a single bay three-storey classically detailed, painted stucco faced elevation to The Dials and similar return elevations to Short’s Gardens and Earlham Street of three bays and two, modestly projecting bays respectively at first and second floor levels with rusticated quoins at the corners below a full cornice and decorative parapet, the building has been restored, and a crowning dome and clock added on the corner facing the Dials to create an imaginative feature.

The external stucco is painted cream to match that of the Crown. The very fine, late-19th/early-20th-century end pilasters of the single bay frontage to The Dials and three bay and five bay ground floor storey frontages to Short’s Gardens and Earlham Street survive, faced in very attractive decorated faience tiling featuring vines and bunches of grapes as a reminder of the name of the original pub. The stucco is painted light grey and the window and door joinery painted dark green.

A listed building of particular special architectural and historic interest and considerable townscape value contributing substantially to the character, appearance and significance of the Seven Dials Conservation Area.

See also Short’s Gardens > Nos. 2-26 (even) > No. 2, Short’s Gardens

Relevant Guidance

Navigation

Photographs

  1. The Dials, Short's Gardens and Earlham Street
  2. The Grapes, The Dials (1957). Courtesy London Metropolitan Archives.
  3. The Crown and The Grapes public houses, The Dials (1890).

Photograph Copyrights and how to Credit the Trust

The contemporary architectural photographs are all © the Trust. If using any of our architectural images from this site you must credit the Trust as:

"Images © the Seven Dials Trust, www.sevendialscoventgarden.study"

If you wish to order high resolution images please use the SHOP section form.

Long Acre Long Acre Shaftesbury Avenue Charing Cross Road Litchfield Street Mercer Street Mercer Street Earlham Street Earlham Street Shelton Street Shelton Street Shelton Street Shelton Street Dryden Street Arne Street Drury Lane Parker Street Shelton Street West Street Tower Street Monmouth Street Monmouth Street Shorts Gardens Shorts Gardens Neal Street Neal’s Yard Neal Street Neal Street Endell Street Endell Street Endell Street Endell Street Betterton Street Langley Street Langley Ct James Street Floral Street Bow Street Bow Street Shorts Gardens Mercer Street Flitcroft Street Stacey Street New Compton Street St Giles Passage Charing Cross Road Shaftesbury Avenue High Holborn Long Acre