Golden Boy of Pye Corner
The Golden Boy of Pye Corner is a small monument located on the corner of Giltspur Street and Cock Lane in Smithfield, central London. It marks the spot where the 1666 Great Fire of London was stopped. The statue is made of wood and is covered with gold. The building which incorporates it is a Grade II listed building.
It bears the following small inscription below it:
This Boy is in Memmory Put up for the late FIRE of LONDON Occasion'd by the Sin of Gluttony.
The main inscription, approximately 10 ft below the boy, reads as follows:
The boy at Pye Corner was
erected to commemorate
the staying of the great
fire which beginning at
Pudding Lane was ascribed
to the Sin of Gluttony
when not attributed to
the papists as on the
Monument and the Boy was
made prodigiously fat to
enforce the moral he was
originally built into the
front of a public-house
Called The Fortune of War
Which used to occupy
This site and was pulled
Down in 1910
'The Fortune of War' was
The chief house of call
North of the River for
Resurrectionists in body
snatching days years ago
The landlord used to show
The room where on benches
Round the walls the bodies
Were placed labelled
With the snatchers'
names waiting till the
Surgeons at Saint
Bartholomew's could run
Round and appraise them
See also
Coordinates: 51°31′01″N 0°06′07″W / 51.51705°N 0.10187°W
