Entrances, or ‘gateways’ into Seven Dials have generally been treated successfully. West Street, Mercer Street and Endell Street each have simple junctions with Shaftesbury Avenue.
The junction of Monmouth Street and Neal Street with Shaftesbury Avenue needed improvement. Rationalising footway surfaces and re-positioning essential street furniture, including the post-box and cycle racks would reduce clutter. The tree cluster needs management to ensure healthy growth. This work was successfully carried out in 2021/2 as can be seen from the before and after images below. The work was kindly funded by Shaftesbury Plc and brought to fruition via a partnership comprising Camden, the Trust and the CGCA.
Closing the exit to Shaftesbury Avenue greatly reduces through traffic.Entrance to Earlham Street West, looking from Shaftesbury Avenue, following works in 2018.
The 1991 Study proposed closing Earlham Street West at Cambridge Circus; this was done in 2015. The Trust made every effort to influence the ensuing upgrading of the street so that it respects the historic 1690s layout, accommodates the street market traders and ensures consistency at the Dials as set out in Upgrading the Setting of the Dials.
Earlham Street East with traditional sets laid in 1991 and paid for by the Trust, with funding from the Kleinwort Benson Property Fund who sponsored the Trust’s first Environmental Study and voluntarily increased their then S52 Agreement from £100,000 to £450,000 to implement works recommended in the Study. The imaginative banana sign is a reminder of the use of the building when most of the area related to the Covent Garden Market.Shorts Gardens towards the Dials with the same treatment as Earlham Street East and carried out at the same time.Mercer Street North to the Dials is the only entry street remaining with tarmac.The entrance to Tower Court with traditional York stone paving paid for by the Trust with sponsorship from Stanhope Properties in the early 1980’s.Monmouth Street North towards the Dials showing the multi-coloured dressed sets and York stone paving. The work in Monmouth Street was carried out in 2005/6 as a partnership between Camden, the Trust and Shaftesbury Plc and was the first time such sets were used in the West End. This partnership initiative has now been adopted across the borough border into Westminster.Monmouth Street South towards the Dials.King Street (2011)King Street Westminster. The top picture shows the street in 2011 before improvement works and below with the same format as Monmouth Street: multi-coloured dressed sets on the carriageway and York stone on either side. This format is planned for Henrietta Street and can also be seen in Mercer Street South (Westminster) and in other streets on the Westminster side and has thus become the overall Covent Garden template.Shaftesbury Avenue / Neal Street. Before improvements.Work at the end of Shaftesbury Avenue / Neal Street was completed in 2020 as part of the wider West End Project funded by Shaftesbury Plc and was a partnership with Shaftesbury Plc, Camden, the Seven Dials Trust, and the Covent Garden Community Association. The first pic is before works and the second after these improvements. The before image shows the work carried out in 1984 at the end of the Seven Dials Housing Action Area. The improvements used the materials recommended in the Trust’s Environmental Study, and moved the various impediments to pedestrian movement to the footway side.
