Made.com vibes: the main bar area
(Picture: Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures)When last year I was arranging where to meet a friend, we erroneously settled on St Martin’s Courtyard, just off Seven Dials. “It’s weird here, isn’t it?” we muttered to each other. If you haven’t been, it’s a spot with a touch of the Basingstokes: since opening a decade ago there’s been a Bill’s, and now around the corner is Caffè Concerto. There’s also Eighties strip club survivor/shipwreck Stringfellows nearby, which is a gift, as every now and then the smokers lingering outside it begin to merge with the queue that dangles from Dishoom, and the mix of the two is, as you can imagine, quite the sight.
Which is all to say that despite its bullseye spot slap bang in the centre of town, the place has never really got going. But the deck’s been reshuffled over the past two years, and now they’re calling this bit of town The Yards, as though at any moment Vinnie Jones might park up in an old Jag with a pair of sawn-offs. I feel like Guy Ritchie had something to do with the name.
