The World of Seven Dials

I’ve written books set in a lot of parts of Regency London. But until The Seven Dials Affair, I hadn’t written a book set in Seven Dials, one of Regency London’s most notorious slums. Just on the edge of the theatre district and an easy walk from Mayfair and St. James’s, Seven Dials was a world away from our typical vision of Regency London. I was thinking of this juxtaposition when I chose the photo above of my daughter Mélanie and me at the Dickens Fair last November, dressed up like Rannoch Fraser Mysteries characters on our way to a ball but in the part of the fair representing the London docks.

Originally laid out in the 1690s and intended to be fashionable housing, the Seven Dials area took its name from a central sundial pillar with six faces (with the column itself being the 7th “dial”). The sundial was removed in 1773 and resurrected in Weybridge as a memorial to the Duchess of York in 1820 (a year before The Seven Dials Affair takes place). In the late 1980s a replacement sundial column was commissioned and installed in original spot.

Seven Dials never caught on as housing with the fashionable set and by the Regency it had degenerated into a notorious slum, known for its ginshops. At one point there was a pub at the apex of each of the seven streets facing the dial with passages connecting their cellars and vaults. Those passages play a key role in an action scene in The Seven Dials Affair.

My daughter Mélanie helped me make a video (well actually Mélanie made and edited the video, I just talked :-) where I talk about exploring the world of Seven Dials.

What are some unexpected historical settings you’ve enjoyed reading or writing about? Do you prefer reading about the fashionable world or the underworld or books that move in between?