Cock Lane is a small street in Smithfield in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, leading from Giltspur Street in the east to Snow Hill in the west. In the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

period, it was known as ''Cokkes Lane'' and was the site of legal

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

s. 25 Cock Lane is the site where the supposed Cock Lane ghost manifested itself in 1762, and is also the place where writer

John Bunyan John Bunyan (; 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', which also became an influential literary model. In addition to ''The Pilgrim' ...

, who wrote England's first best-seller, died from a fever in 1688. The junction of Giltspur Street and Cock Lane was known as Pye Corner, famous as marking the furthest extent of the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

, which is commemorated by the Golden Boy of Pye Corner. This effigy was originally built into the front of a

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

called The Fortune of War which used to occupy the site but was pulled down in 1910.

References

Streets in the City of London Smithfield, London {{London-road-stub