A few short steps from the hustle of Covent Garden, Seven Dials offers an alternate take on central London, one filled with independent shops and more than its fair share of good bars. Time to explore.
Sitting smack in the middle of theatreland, it’s no surprise Seven Dials isn’t short on character. With a distinctly different feel from the centre of Covent Garden, it rewards a proper walk around. You never know what you’ll find.
Cool things to do in Seven Dials
Neal’s Yard
Colourful Neal’s Yard is one of London’s most distinctive spots, a welcome clash of colour splashed across a cluster of higgledy-piggledy buildings, accessed by two narrow alleys from the surrounding streets.
It’s also the birthplace of the skincare brand of the same name, you can still pop in today to pick up a herbal remedy or two.
Count the dials
Seven Dials might seem an odd name for an area, but it all makes sense once you’ve stood at its centre and counted the seven roads radiating out in different directions.
Are there really seven? Yes, though you might want to count again just to be sure.
Donmar Warehouse
As much as we love the glitz of a full-scale theatre production, there’s real charm in smaller, more intimate ones too.
With just 251 seats, Donmar Warehouse offers a far smaller space than most companies nearby, but under current artistic director Timothy Sheader, it continues to put on some of the most dynamic theatre in town.
The Donmar is one of the newer theatres on the scene (it opened in 1977), and that hasn’t stopped it building a genuinely formidable reputation, past artistic directors have included Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage, Josie Rourke and Michael Longhurst. There are few better ways to spend an evening than dropping into one of its shows, book ahead though, they sell out fast.
Seven Dials restaurant picks
Whether you’re after a bite before a show, a long lunch or an even longer dinner, Seven Dials has plenty of good restaurants. These are our favourites.
Hawksmoor
Hawksmoor serves some of the best steaks in London. Fact.
The Seven Dials branch offers steaks crafted from the freshest ingredients and cooked properly, alongside a genuinely good bar if you want a cocktail to go with your dinner, or dessert, why not.
You can skip the steak entirely and just pop in for a drink, the bar stands on its own as one of the best in the area.
The Barbary
It’s hard to get through The Barbary‘s menu without your mouth watering. With dishes like octopus mashawsha and chicken al bandora, it’s even harder to choose what to order.
Sharing is encouraged, one of the ways the restaurant draws on traditional Berber culture, from the Atlas Mountain region spanning modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. This small restaurant sometimes struggles under the weight of its own popularity, so book ahead.
Story Cellar
Tucked into Neal’s Yard itself, Story Cellar is the younger, more relaxed sibling to Story, built around counter dining and a grill-centric menu that’s genuinely hard to fault.
The snail bolognese on toast and the signature rotisserie chicken, brined in bacon stock, are the two dishes worth planning your order around, though honestly there isn’t a weak spot on the menu. Sit at the counter overlooking the open kitchen if you can.
Truffle
For something more casual, Truffle built its name on truffle-laden burgers, the beef and bacon patty with fig jam and truffle mayo remains the signature order, alongside proper truffle and parmesan fries.
Worth knowing: some third-party listing sites currently show Truffle’s original Seven Dials Market stall as closed, while the brand’s own website still lists it as an active location. We couldn’t fully reconcile the two, so it’s worth checking their site directly before making a special trip.
Pick & Cheese
Another spot for pure indulgence, in Seven Dials Market, is Pick & Cheese, think a conveyor belt, but instead of sushi, it’s cheese.
Rotating selections sourced from across the UK whizz past as you watch on, slightly disbelieving. Head there for lunch on Wednesdays (book ahead) for bottomless cheese and condiments at a fixed price, worth checking the current rate before you go.
Monmouth Kitchen
Upmarket Monmouth Kitchen serves an impressive collection of Peruvian and Italian plates in a bright, airy room.
Start with the trio of bruschetta, parmigiana, cherry tomato, and spinach and soft cheese on toasted bread. The roasted corn-fed chicken with Peruvian-spiced charred kale is the standout main, though everything here is good, and the dedicated vegan menu holds its own as one of the best vegan spots in London.
Flesh & Buns
Near Seven Dials proper is the original Flesh & Buns, a Japanese izakaya-style restaurant with genuinely excellent buns.
The small plates are the stars, order two or three per person and share around the table. The scallop yaki and fried squid are non-negotiable.
Brilliant pubs and bars in Seven Dials
Seven Dials was once infamous for its liquor dens, and while it’s far more respectable today, it’s still a great place for a drink.
The Escapologist
Who doesn’t want a cocktail while feeling like you’ve been inducted into some kind of secret society?
The Victorian-styled Escapologist leans into exactly that, styled somewhere between a Masonic lodge and a historic Victorian gentlemen’s club. Worth seeing for yourself.
Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels
If you’re a wine lover, Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels is both a great drinking haunt and a genuine challenge, can you guess the mystery glass of wine? We couldn’t, though they’ll email you the answer once you’ve left.
Part of the Experimental Cocktail Club group, the wine list here is genuinely excellent, French-heavy but with plenty of range beyond it, best paired with a cheese or charcuterie platter.
BrewDog
BrewDog helped lead the shift that made craft beer as talked-about as fine wine, tasting notes and all.
The brand went through a major shake-up in 2026, sold to Tilray in a pre-pack administration deal that saw dozens of UK bars close overnight, but the Seven Dials branch was one of the sites kept open under the new ownership. Expect a genuinely no-frills beer selection with tasty accompaniments like wings and burgers.
The Two Brewers
For an authentic London pub experience, head for The Two Brewers on Monmouth Street.
Within easy walking distance of the West End theatres, it’s been a popular haunt of the theatre crowd for over 150 years. We love the flower-laden exterior, the proper British beer on tap, and a generous gin selection if that’s more your thing.
The Crown
Also on Monmouth Street, The Crown is another picture-perfect Seven Dials pub, complete with hanging baskets and a tiled exterior.
While it’s Instagram-ready today, in Charles Dickens’s time it was known as a “hot bed of villainy,” frequented by prostitutes, philandering actors and starving artists. A fitting place to raise a glass to London’s more salacious past.
Seven Dials shops
Shopping in Seven Dials means hunting out proper independent finds rather than the standard high street chains, a far cry from the shops around the corner. Here’s where to start.
Tatty Devine
The best finds are often in independent shops like Tatty Devine, started in 1999 by two art school graduates trying to avoid getting real jobs.
The brand’s original Monmouth Street shop closed in 2023 after a lease dispute with its landlord, but Tatty Devine hasn’t left the area, it’s now on Neal Street instead. Rosie and Harriet are still at the helm, and it remains one of the best-loved independent shops in this corner of London. Tatty Devine is known for colourful, distinctive jewellery, the laser-cut name necklaces remain the most famous piece, and the originals.
Neal’s Yard Dairy
You can never have too much cheese, so it’s worth exploring the selection at Neal’s Yard Dairy.
Britain produces some genuinely excellent cheeses too, Coolea and Cornish Yarg among the more distinctive varieties. Taste and take home at the Seven Dials shop, and look out for their regular cheese tasting events.
Hotel Chocolat
Got a sweet tooth? Don’t miss Hotel Chocolat. They take chocolate seriously enough to run their own cocoa plantation in Saint Lucia to keep quality consistent.
Super Superficial
Comfort doesn’t have to mean sacrificing style, just ask Super Superficial.
Working with local up-and-coming artists, the store prints striking designs onto comfortable t-shirts and hoodies. From quirky to thought-provoking, it’s the place for a genuine piece of wearable art.
The Vintage Showroom
Walking into The Vintage Showroom feels a little like stepping backstage into a West End costume room.
Part boutique, part gallery, it holds thousands of hand-selected pieces of vintage menswear. Vintage shopping usually means trawling through plenty of ordinary stock to find one good piece, here, every item earns its place. Don’t miss it if you love fashion.
The history of Seven Dials
It might be a desirable area today, but Seven Dials’ history hasn’t always been glamorous.
For years, the land was owned by one of the largest developers in the country, who in the 1690s decided to build housing to sell at high prices to nobility and aristocrats. To boost the area’s appeal, they gave the streets grand names and built a sundial column as a centrepiece, with, you guessed it, seven dials (technically one face was a column, but the name stuck regardless).
The plan didn’t work. The nobility wanted nothing to do with Seven Dials, and it slowly became a slum, home to impoverished residents and no shortage of gin houses. Poet John Keats described it as a place “where misery clings to misery for a little warmth.”
The area has undergone a genuine transformation since, especially from the 1970s onward. Today it’s a lively pocket of the West End, overflowing with good things to do and places to eat. And luckily for all of us, there are still a few gin bars. Some things stay the same.
The London x London Take: Seven Dials rewards slowing down rather than rushing through on the way to Covent Garden proper, the Donmar for a genuinely different theatre night, Neal’s Yard for the colour, and a wander through the side streets for the shops most visitors walk straight past.
Need to know
- Where: Seven Dials, London WC2, bordered by Covent Garden, Neal’s Yard and Monmouth Street
- Nearest stations: Covent Garden, Leicester Square or Holborn, each under a 10-minute walk; Charing Cross is about 12 minutes on foot
- Best for: Independent shopping, pre-theatre dinners, and a quirkier alternative to central Covent Garden
