Seven Dials Monument

The Seven Dials Monument in London is a sundial pillar at the junction of seven streets, commissioned in 1693 by Thomas Neale to maximize rental frontage. Although seven streets radiate from the site, the pillar features only six carved sundial faces because the column acts as the seventh gnomon. Removed in 1773, the current monument was erected in 1989 as a replica carved by Caroline Webb.

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

Seven Dials, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9BY

Why does the Seven Dials Monument in London have only six sundial faces?

Look around you. Seven streets radiate outward from this very spot like the spokes of a wheel... and at the centre stands this elegant pillar, topped with gilded sundials. This is the Seven Dials Monument, and it holds one of London's most delicious secrets.......... Back in the sixteen nineties, this entire area was open farmland, owned by the Worshipful Company of Mercers. An ambitious MP named Thomas Neale saw a golden opportunity to turn it into London's most fashionable address. Neale was known as "The Great Projector." He was an MP for thirty years, sat on sixty two parliamentary committees, served as Master of the Mint... and even introduced England's first lottery, the precursor to today's National Lottery.......... Now here's where his genius shows. Neale designed this star-shaped layout to create triangular plots, because in those days, rent was charged per foot of Frontage rather than by square footage. More corners meant more front doors, and more front doors meant more money in his pocket.......... He commissioned England's leading stonemason, Edward Pierce, to design the Sundial Pillar in sixteen ninety three as the centrepiece of it all. And here's a detail most people miss. Count the sundial faces up there. Go on. You'll find... only Six. That's because Neale's original plan had only six streets. The seventh was added later, so the column itself acts as the gnomon of the seventh dial, casting its own shadow to tell the time.......... But the story takes a dark turn. Neale's first tenants were respectable lawyers and merchants. But a subsequent owner broke up the freehold, buildings were subdivided and sublet, and the once genteel neighbourhood became one of London's Worst slums... a byword for poverty, the haunt of thieves, cutthroats, and prostitutes. At one point, each of the seven corners facing this monument housed a pub, their cellars connected underground, providing handy escape routes should the need arise.......... Now... every London guidebook will tell you the original pillar was torn down in seventeen seventy three by an angry mob searching for buried treasure. It's a fantastic legend. But the Real story? Research by Trust Chairman David biEda revealed that the pillar was actually removed by order of the Paving Commissioners, in an attempt to rid the area of "undesirables" who congregated around it. No treasure. No mob. Just bureaucrats trying to scatter the riffraff... and failing miserably.......... The original column ended up at the house of architect James Paine in Addelstone, Surrey, and was later re-erected in nearby Weybridge as a memorial to a Prussian duchess. It's still there today, known as the York Column.......... Various attempts were made by the London County Council and Camden Council to get it back, but Weybridge Council refused. So what did London do? They built a brand new one! The Seven Dials Trust reconstructed this replica in nineteen eighty nine... the first project of its kind in London since Nelson's Column in the eighteen forties. It was unveiled by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, honouring the Dutch connection, since Neale was one of the men who met William of Orange when he arrived to claim the English crown.......... The dials you see were carved and gilded by Caroline Webb, with the mathematics verified by astronomer Gordon Taylor. Each face is accurate to within ten seconds. So next time someone asks you the time... just look up.

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