Seven Dials

in Dickens' Sketches by Boz.]] In the Middle Ages, the area was owned by the monastic hospital of St Giles which specialised in treating lepers, but it was expropriated by Henry VIII in 1537 and later passed into private hands. In the 17th century, a local estate known as Cock and Pye Fields belonged to the Worshipful Company of Mercers, which, to maximise its income in the burgeoning West End, allowed building licences on what until then was open farmland near the developing metropolitan area. The original layout of the Seven Dials area was designed by Thomas Neale during the early 1690s. His plan had six roads converging, although this number was later increased to seven. The sundial…

Neale commissioned the architect and stonemason Edward Pierce to design and construct a sundial pillar during 1693–94. The original drawing in brown ink with a grey wash is in the British Museum collection. On top of an eight-foot (2.4m) tall plinth, there is a 20 ft tall Doric column. The sculpture that contains the six sundials and the pinnacle is 10 ft tall. This block is arranged with direct north and south facing vertical dials, and four vertically declining dials. The monument was erected during 1694, but removed during 1773. Reconstruction of the replica was launched by the Seven Dials Trust during 1985 and erected during 1989. It was the first project of its kind in London since the…