Neal's Yard

Neal's Yard in London is a colorful courtyard transformed from a derelict 1970s alleyway into an artisan hub after Nicholas Saunders bought a banana warehouse for £7,000 in 1974. Saunders established iconic independent businesses, including the Whole Food Warehouse in 1976, Monmouth Coffee Company in 1978, and Neal's Yard Dairy in 1979. Additionally, Monty Python stars Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam edited films at number 11 between 1976 and 1987.

London · from the walk “London's Best-Kept Secrets” · audio ~4 min · Generated

Neal's Yard, Short's Gardens, London WC2H 9AT

Who transformed Neal's Yard in London from a rat-infested warehouse alley into an artisan courtyard?

Look around you. Electric blue, sunny yellow, vivid pink... this explosion of colour is Neal's Yard. But here's what most people don't realize. Until the mid nineteen seventies, this place didn't even appear on the London A to Z. It was literally off the map.......... Back in the nineteen seventies, this was little more than a derelict, rat-ridden alleyway. A rat-infested yard surrounded by crumbling warehouses... whose only human visitors were the tramps who used it as a lavatory. It had once been storage for the Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market, which had moved out to Vauxhall two years before.......... And then... one man changed everything. His name? Nicholas Saunders. His father was Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders, director of the London School of Economics. His family was wealthy, living in a sixteenth-century mansion near Oxford. Nicholas attended Ampleforth College, nicknamed the Catholic Eton. But he wanted Nothing to do with that world.......... In nineteen seventy four, Saunders purchased a rundown banana-ripening warehouse at number two Neal's Yard for just seven thousand pounds, funded by an inheritance from his great-aunt. He'd spent most of the previous year living in ChristiAnia, a large squatter community in Denmark, hauling bags of nuts and beans back to London. He was a dreamer... but a dreamer who got things done.......... In nineteen seventy six, he opened a wholefood shop named the Whole Food Warehouse. And that same year... Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam bought offices at number eleven Neal's Yard — two years after the TV series finished, they set up recording studios and an editing suite for the Python films and other projects, using them right up until nineteen eighty seven. A blue plaque on the building commemorates this. Look for it on the wall above... that's where the legendary animations for Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life were cut together.......... But Saunders wasn't finished. He founded Monmouth Coffee Company in nineteen seventy eight, Neal's Yard Dairy in nineteen seventy nine, and the Apothecary dispensing alternative and natural remedies — now known worldwide as Neal's Yard Remedies. And here's a delicious detail about the dairy. It was founded after Saunders returned from a trip to Greece and couldn't find Greek yoghurt anywhere in London. He met a young graduate named Randolph Hodgson... and when they finally opened in July nineteen seventy nine, their yoghurt tasted Terrible. It was eventually traced to the varnish on the curing cupboards.......... From that disastrous yoghurt, Hodgson went on to almost single-handedly revive British artisan cheesemaking. As he later recalled... "When I started in nineteen seventy nine, there were really only a handful of farmers left. The tradition was close to being lost."

...... So take a moment. Breathe it in. This kaleidoscope of colour, these dangling flower boxes, the scent of fresh coffee and artisan cheese... All of it grew from a forgotten, rat-infested courtyard and one eccentric visionary who paid seven thousand pounds for a banana warehouse. Not bad for a place that wasn't even on the map.

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