Seven Dials walk: the 1920s and 1930s, and the making of modern London
Seven Dials walk: the 1920s and 1930s, and the making of modern London
Saturday 27 June 2026
Start time/place: 10.00am/the centre of Seven Dials, London WC2H 9HA
Finish time/place: 12.00pm/the centre of Seven Dials, London WC2H 9HA
Join historian Matt Houlbrook on a journey into a remarkable neighbourhood and the battle to define modern London.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Seven Dials was one of London's most diverse neighbourhoods, home to migrant and working-class communities, bohemian clubs and cafes. But business leaders and city planners had other ideas.
Beginning with a rancorous libel trial of 1927, in which a Sierra Leonean café owner and his wife confronted the racist newspaper that destroyed their business, Matt’s tour of Seven Dials reveals the surprising history of this remarkable neighbourhood. He traces how tensions that simmered on the streets and finally exploded in court betrayed the politics of urban 'improvement' and the 'colour bar'. Underlying the trial was a series of troubling questions that would define Britain in the twentieth century - about race, class and the boundaries of belonging, gentrification and the kind of city London would become.
The tour includes the site of long-forgotten cafes and queer nightclubs, the tenements, shops, and workshops where the people of Seven Dials lived, worked, and played, and modernist office blocks that were never built, as well as St Giles Buildings (1925, C Westcott Reeves and Alfred Rason) and the Cambridge Theatre (1930, Wimperis, Simpson, and Guthrie).
Matt Houlbrook is a writer, historian, and Professor of Cultural History at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London (2026), Prince of Tricksters: The incredible true story of Netley Lucas, gentleman crook (2016), and Queer London: Perils and pleasures in the sexual metropolis, 1918-57 (2005).
The walking tour will last about 2 hours and will go ahead in any weather.
Non-members: £25
C20 Members: £20
Students*: £15.00
Young C20**: £12.50
*For student pricing please select from the dropdown option next to ‘membership number’ on the booking form below.
**For Young C20 members, please email lukas@c20society.org.uk to secure a place.
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The Twentieth Century Society is an IHBC (Institute of Historic Building conservation) recognised CPD provider and is a registered charity, no 1110244.
Above: Birds eye view of Seven Dials. Photo by Trey Ratcliff CC BY-NC-SA 2.0