Nicholas Grebe: The Seven Dials

The piece that I’m focusing on is the Seven Dials Monument and the surrounding neighborhood. Outside the context of it being a source of interest for Charles Dickens or Henry Mayhew, the plaza and area that envelops it serves as an example of a region in London that breathes crests and troughs throughout its history.

It’s remnants in its attempt to become an affluent representation of the success of an empire is evident just with a peek at the monument. With instead of a clock at the top, the sundials stand for more than just the telling of time, but again emphasizes a blatantly literal interpretation that the sun never sets on the British empire. Furthermore, the architectural choices of the column point to past empires and how it proves this plaza as a demarcation of British empire. Donning an un-fluted column with a Doric capital, it mimics specifically Grecian influence (Roman would likely be the leafy Corinthian columns seen on buildings such as the National Gallery or St. Paul's) with a pointed head that mirrors the Egyptian obelisk. Similarly, the way it domineers the area solidifies it as a pointer toward the heavens and a phallic power symbol where it almost says that the British Empire is comparable to the Kingdom of Heaven itself.

Now, decades after it was built it served almost the exact opposite effect. When under scrutiny of writers such as Charles Dickens, the people surrounding this intersection and monument suffered the tribulations among the lowest classes of London at the time. Instead of serving as a symbol of how the empire is historic and destined for greatness by right, it dominated their daily life as a reminder of grandeur they could never achieve. Instead of instilling a feeling of a divinely instituted government, it had turned into a symbol that the empire will now serve as their god and they must serve for the glory of the empire as their lord.

Now, today it is filled with restaurants, apartments, a theater or two in between, but the monument still stands. Regardless of how it is seen today, it reflects the theme that historians, writers, and artists seem to be torn on. It circles around the fact that the empire has continued to stand for centuries longer than most nations in the world, and in good times and in bad, through indulgence and poverty, British Empire has continued to stand.

Sidenote: I don't know who this Andrew character is or why this blog says that I am posting as him, but anyways hi, hello, this is Nick Grebe, I don't know an Andrew...