Cock Lane is a small street in Smithfield in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

, 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 late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

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

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub p ...

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 (; baptised 30 November 162831 August 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress,'' which also became an influential literary model. In additio ...

, 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 Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past th ...

, which is commemorated by the

Golden Boy of Pye Corner The Golden Boy of Pye Corner is a small late-17th-century 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, whereas the Monument i ...

. This effigy was originally built into the front of a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

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