This marker is in a tucked-away spot in this confusing area of courts and crooked alleyways along Fleet Street.
It is most easily accessed from Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub. Instead of heading towards Fleet Street, turn back down the alley towards Wine Court. This framed marker will be on your right.
The marker reads as follows:
"WINE OFFICE COURT
“Sir,” said Dr. Johnson, “If you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this great city you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This court takes its name from the Excise Office which was here up to 1665. VOLTAIRE came, and, says tradition, CONGREVE, and POPE, Dr JOHNSON lived in Gough Square, (End of court on the left), and finished his Great Dictionary there in 1755. OLIVER GOLDSMITH lived at No. 6, where he partly wrote “The Vicar of Wakefield” and Johnson saved them from eviction by selling the book for him . . . . . . . . . .
Here came Johnson’s friends, REYNOLDS, GIBBON, GARRICK, Dr BURNEY, BOSWELL, and others of his Circle.
In the 19th C. came CARLYLE, MACAULAY, TENNYSON, DICKENS (who mentions the court in “A Tale of Two Cities” FORSTER, HOOD, THACKERAY, CRUIKSHANK, LEECH and WILKIE COLLINS. More recently came MARK TWAIN, THEODORE ROOSEVELT, CONAN DOYLE, BEERBOHM CHERSTERTON, DOWNSON, LE GALEIENE, SYMONS, YEATS -- and a host of others in search of Dr. Johnson, or “The Cheese.”"
From The Londonist blog: (
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"Londonist's Back Passage: 50. Wine Office Court
Where? The most protracted of a ganglion of passages north of Fleet Street. Wine Office Court connects Shoe Lane and Fleet Street via two perpendicular stretches.
What? Time to raise a glass, as we reach a half-century of Back Passages. The derivation of Wine Office Court is easily guessed; it was from buildings in this alley that licenses to sell wine were once granted. First-floor stone reliefs close to the point of inflection recall this history by depicting tools of the vintner's trade. Like much of the area, Wine Office Court is first documented in the John Ogilby map of 1676. The famous cartographer was, in fact, a local, owning a shop on the east-west portion of the passage. The most celebrated resident of Wine Office Court was Oliver Goldsmith, who wrote part of The Vicar of Wakefield in his lodgings at number 6. But of greater éclat than either Ogilby or Goldsmith is the world-renowned pub at the Southern end of Wine Office Court. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was built immediately after the Great Fire on the site of previous inns. It has lasted through the reigns of 15 sovereigns;a heritage proudly boasted on a poster outside the entrance. Everyone has visited, including Dickens, Johnson, Carlyle, Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and Londonist, but few will be familiar with every nook and cranny of this vertically sprawling emperor of pubs. The remainder of the passage is largely unremarkable, consisting of handsome red-brick buildings and a more forgettable postmodern effort along the northern boundary."