Tired of London, Tired of Life - A website about things to do in London

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19 January 2011

Find the Golden Boy of Pye Corner

High up on the wall, on the corner of Giltspur Street and Pye Corner, in the City of London, is a full-size golden statue of a small boy. An inscription below recounts that it is here in commemoration of the Great Fire of London, "Occasion'd" we are told "by the Sin of Gluttony".


The reason that the site was chosen is supposedly that at the time, Pye Corner (for that was its name) was one of London’s most sinful places, and the aptly-named Cock Lane was full of brothels.

We are told that the boy once adorned the front of the Fortune of War public house, which stood on the site until it was demolished in 1910. Nowadays, as the picture shows, he retains a role as a place of pilgrimage for those on walking tours of the City of London. For more information, click here.

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