Monuments & Ruins

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Golden Boy of Pye Corner

A small gilded boy high on a corner, marking where the Great Fire stopped and blaming it on gluttony.

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Photo by Dcs57, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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The fire of 1666 started at a bakery in Pudding Lane and burnt out here at Pye Corner, and the preachers noticed. A fat little wooden figure was put up on the corner of the Fortune of War tavern, which was where the body-snatchers sold to St Bartholomew's across the road, with the inscription that the fire was occasioned by the sin of gluttony. The pub went in 1910 and the boy was kept in the wall of what replaced it. He is easy to miss; look up.

Where
Giltspur Street at Cock Lane, EC1A 9DD
Nearest station
City Thameslink · 3 min walk

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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