Monmouth Street was the name of a street cleared away in 1889 when Shaftesbury Avenue was cut through along the north-west side of Seven Dials as a combined work of slum clearance and traffic improvement. The name was reassigned in 1938 to two streets known as Great St Andrew’s Street – this section – and Little St Andrew’s Street (from The Dials southwards to Upper St Martin’s Lane).
During the 18th century it was home to many Huguenot craftsmen – watch and clock-makers, wood-carvers and picture-framers. In the 19th century the street was lined with down-at-heel shops, many selling birds and bird cages, cats and dogs. In 1889, the Nouvel Hôpital et Dispensaire Français was built and staffed by a French nursing order of nuns. It offered medical aid to French-speaking foreigners until the mid-1960s. In 1924, to ease lorry traffic congestion around Covent Garden Market, Great St Andrew’s Street became one of the first roads in London to be made one-way.
