There is interesting historic heraldry connected with Seven Dials, the use of which both contributes to the visual appearance of the Study Area and illuminates its history.
Parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields.
The arms of the Parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields, later incorporated into the composite arms of the Borough of Holborn, comprised a ‘Hind couchant pierced by an arrow Or’ (a seated deer pierced by a golden arrow). This refers to the legend of St Giles who, while walking in the woods near Nisme, found a hind wounded by an arrow. He took it home and healed its wound. The hind became a devoted pet and went around with him, being later adopted as his symbol or ‘attribute’.
The heraldic shield device and colours of the former Borough of Holborn were red, black, white and gold, incorporating the parish motif of the golden hind of St Giles.
The heraldic St Giles hind on a disc has been adopted as the approach for the Seven Dials identity and has been used on street name plates, bollards, litter bins, People’s Plaques and street history plaques as well as by the main freeholder Shaftesbury plc on its signage.
The Mercers’ Company
Established in the 12th century, The Mercers’ Company is the premier Livery Company of the City of London. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Mercers’ Company marked the boundaries of their Drury Lane estate with depictions of their crest on the buildings.
The arms of the Mercers’ Company comprise a Shield: ‘Gules issuant from a bank of clouds a figure of the Virgin: couped at the shoulders proper crested in a crimson robe adorned with gold, the neck encircled by a jewelled necklace, crined or wreathed about the temples with a chaplet of roses alternately argent of the first and crowned with a celestial crown within a bordure of clouds also proper’; and a Crest: ‘On a wreath of the colours issuant from a bank of clouds proper a figure of the Virgin as in the arms.’ The arms are recorded in a Heralds’ Visitation of 1568 and are probably of medieval origin.
The Maiden’s Head crest is depicted on the block of Victorian flats in Shelton Street, and it is suggested that they should be painted in the heraldic colours. A relief depiction of the Crest has been incorporated on the facades of new developments. A hanging sign with the full arms would be highly appropriate at the former Mercers’ Arms Public House on the corner of Mercer Street and Shelton Street.
The Mercers’ Company was bequeathed much of the area between Shelton Street and Long Acre by Lady Bradbury in 1530 and here and elsewhere in London there are a great variety of the Company’s maiden’s heads.
