In the junction of Cock Lane and Giltspur Street is the figure of the “Golden Boy of Pye Corner”.
This small statue was originally established into the wall of the Fortune of War, a public house in Smithfield. This tavern was famous because of its tenant, Thomas Andrews, who, in 1761, was condemned of sodomy and sentenced to death. The King George III exculpated him. This decision stimulated the first debate about homosexuality in England. In the 19th century, the tavern was the main centre for the resurrectionists. The doctors at St Bartholomew´s Hospital used to go to The Fortune of War to find death bodies to practice their surgeries. The bar was torn down in 1910.
Meanwhile, Monument, which was enclosed by Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, was built between 1671 and 1677 to commemorate the start of the Great Fire of London, The Boy remembers where the Fire was extinguished. In the sculpture we can read:
The Fire started in a bakery at Pudding Lane and finished in Pye Corner. The child is fat to enforce the moral suggesting that another great fire would happen any day soon.
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