Neal's Yard

Neal's Yard is a vibrantly painted former market service courtyard in London that was transformed from a derelict site into a hub of organic enterprise by Nicholas Saunders starting in 1974. Saunders bought a banana-ripening warehouse for Β£7,000, launching iconic brands such as Neal's Yard Remedies and Neal's Yard Dairy. In 1976, Monty Python members Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam also bought offices at number 11 Neal's Yard.

London Β· from the walk β€œSecret London: Hidden Alleys, Ancient Stones & Forgotten Stories” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

Neal's Yard, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9DP

Who transformed London's Neal's Yard from a derelict warehouse site in 1974?

Look around you. Electric blue, sunshine yellow, vivid pink... these walls explode with colour like nowhere else in London. But this kaleidoscopic courtyard you're standing in? Just fifty years ago, it was a dark, rat-infested, derelict yard... a forgotten dead-end that most Londoners walked right past.......... Until the mid-nineteen seventies, Neal's Yard didn't even appear on the London A to Z. It was literally Off the map. A place that didn't officially exist.......... The name goes back over three hundred years. Thomas Neale β€” known as "The Great Projector" β€” was an MP for thirty years, Master of the Mint, and a gambler-entrepreneur who adopted a star-shaped plan with six radiating streets to dramatically increase the number of houses that could be built on the site. That's Seven Dials, just around the corner. But this little courtyard behind it? It became nothing more than a service yard for the old Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market.......... Then, in nineteen seventy-four, everything changed. A wonderfully eccentric man named Nicholas Saunders bought a banana-ripening warehouse in the Yard for just seven thousand pounds β€” thanks to an inheritance from his great-aunt. A Banana warehouse! Saunders was a figurehead of London's alternative scene who wrote books teaching people how to enjoy London without lots of money.......... He wanted to Live here, but the council said no. So instead, he transformed the derelict banana warehouse into a wholefoods shop, introducing organic and natural products to a wider public. Everyone thought he was mad. But from that single shop... an empire of idealism grew. He backed friends in launching what would become some of London's most beloved brands β€” Neal's Yard Dairy with Randolph Hodgson, Monmouth Coffee with Anita Le Roy, and Neal's Yard Remedies with Romy Fraser.......... And here's a detail most people miss. In nineteen seventy-six, Monty Python stars Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam bought offices right here at number eleven Neal's Yard. So while Saunders was selling lentils from sacks on the floor, some of British comedy's greatest minds were writing sketches just upstairs.......... And what became of Nicholas Saunders himself? Described as a "hippy capitalist," he combined visionary idealism with practical enterprise. He slept in a suspended egg in a rooftop flat he designed above the yard. Sadly, he died in nineteen ninety-eight, aged sixty, in a car crash near Kroonstad, South Africa... while researching the use of psychoactive drugs in traditional rituals around the world. An eccentric visionary, right to the very end.......... Take a moment. Look at these painted walls, the hanging plants, the vines tumbling from balconies. Every splash of colour is a quiet rebellion β€” one man's refusal to let London swallow another forgotten corner. And somehow... it worked.

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