Neal’s Yard is a small Covent Garden courtyard whose colourful façades now conceal a much rougher history. In the 1970s, Nicholas Saunders helped turn a neglected service yard into a gathering place, beginning with a wholefood shop and a different idea of neighborhood retail.
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Step into the courtyard and the scale changes: Covent Garden’s busy streets narrow into a pocket of shops and upper windows. Neal’s Yard was not always a destination.
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UpgradeQuick facts
- The yard forms part of Covent Garden’s Seven Dials area.
- Nicholas Saunders opened a wholefood shop there in 1976.
- Neal’s Yard Remedies began in Covent Garden in 1981.
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