Ye Olde Cock Tavern - Fleet Street, London, UK
N 51° 30.829 W 000° 06.634
30U E 700483 N 5710924
This pub stands on the south side of Fleet Street close to the Royal Courts of Justice. The original pub used to stand on the north (opposite) side of Fleet Street.
Waymark Code: WMG6A6
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/19/2013
Views: 5
The sign shows, as would be expected a
cockerel with the name of the pub. The sign looks to have been recently
refreshed as it is in good condition.
The pub is Grade II listed and the
entry at the English Heritage website [visit
link] tells us:
"1912 by Gilbert and Constandures.
Painted roughcast. 4 storeys and attic; a single bay facade; ground floor
entrance with wide 4 centred arch. Timber mullioned and transomed oriel window
with leaded lights at 1st floor. Attic within half-timbered gable with plain
bargeboards. Steep tiled roof. Hanging sign on wrought iron bracket. Contains a
C17 chimneypiece of stone supported on plain brackets with an oak overmantel
flanked by enriched terminal pilasters."
The Mysterious Britain and Ireland
website [visit
link] tells of a ghostly sighting:
"Ye Olde Cock Tavern is a Grade II
listed building dating from 1887 and can be found at 22 Fleet Street. The
original Ye Olde Cock Tavern was built in the 17th century and used to be on the
opposite side of the road. This pub was demolished in 1887 to make way for the
Law Courts branch of the Bank of England and it’s interior including the
fireplace and mantle was transferred into the new rebuilt pub on the other side
of the road. Unfortunately some of these original interior furnishings were
destroyed during a fire in 1990.
There is a story about an
appartition being sighted her in 1984, when a young woman working at Ye Olde
Cock Tavern encountered a smiling disembodied head at the rear of the building.
Her scream was said to have been heard throughout the pub.
Ye Olde Cock Tavern (or more
correctly the original Ye Olde Cock Tavern) is said to have been visited by the
novelist Charles John Huffam Dickens (born 7 February 1812 – died 9 June 1870),
the politician Samuel Pepys (born 23 February 1633 – died 26 May 1703) and the
Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson (born 6 August 1809 – died 6 October 1892),
but the disembodied head is said to have been identified as belonging to the
Irish poet, physician and writer, Oliver Goldsmith (born between 1727 - 1731 –
died 4 April 1774). Goldsmith was buried at Temple Church which was built by
Knights Templars in the 12th century and is located behind the current Ye Olde
Cock Tavern."