Seven Dials is a road junction in Covent Garden where seven streets converge and the name is also applied, informally, to the surrounding area. In Charles Dickens time it was the most notorious slum in London but is now a prosperous, largely commercial, neighbourhood. A perfectly pleasant area.

There are three of the seven streets visible in the picture.

Do you need some colour in your life? A short way along either Shorts Gardens or Monmouth Street, both streets radiating out of the Seven Dials junction, are the two alleyways forming part of Neal's Yard. These alleys open onto a small triangular shaped courtyard.

This shows the yard which was named after the 17th century developer Thomas Neale. The last 'e' has obviously since been dropped.

This imposing building on the left, in Long Acre, is the Freemason's Masonic Hall. It was built in 1927 in the Art Deco style and is the third hall to be built on this site since the 1700s.

Goodwin's Court is a narrow alley tucked away between Bedfordbury and St. Martin's Lane and these buildings have survived from the 1600s.

It would be very easy to miss the entrances to Goodwin's Court as neither is particularly prominent. This view is towards the St. Martin's Lane entrance.

This building is part of what was the old Covent Garden fruit and vegatable market. By the end of the 1960s the traffic serving the market was causing considerable congestion so in 1974 the market was relocated to a more suitable site.

These buildings re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980, and the area now a tourist location containing cafes, pubs, small shops, and a craft market called the Apple Market (the building in the picture), along with another market held in the Jubilee Hall.