Cock Lane is a small street in Smithfield in the City of London, leading from Giltspur Street in the east to Snow Hill in the west.
In the medieval period, it was known as Cokkes Lane and was the site of legal brothels. It is famous as the site of the house (No. 25) where the supposed Cock Lane ghost manifested itself in 1762, and as being the place where the writer John Bunyan, 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: commemorated by the Golden Boy of Pye Corner. This effigy was originally built into the front of a public house called The Fortune of War which used to occupy the site but was pulled down in 1910.
Famous quotes containing the words cock and/or lane:
“Who’ll be chief mourner?
I, said the dove,
I’ll mourn for my love,
I’ll be chief mourner.”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. Who killed Cock Robin? (L. 33–36)
“The question is whether personal freedom is worth the terrible effort, the never-lifted burden and risks of self-reliance.”
—Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968)