'The Golden Boy of Pye Corner'

"This boy is

in Memory Put up

for the late FIRE of

LONDON

Occasion'd by the

Sin of Gluttony

1666."

At the corner of Cock Lane and Giltspur Street you will find this unassuming golden statue. Once you have seen and understood the meaning of the statue, you will never look at it the same way again.

Back in 1666 it was close to this spot, on Pye Corner, that the Great Fire of 1666 was finally extinguished.

But why a golden statue of a chubby boy?

An inscription, below the statue, reads as follows:

The boy at Pye Corner was

erected to commemorate 

the staying of the Great

Fire which, beginning at

Pudding Lane, was ascribed

to the sin of Gluttony

when not attributed to

the Papists, as on the

Monument. And the boy was

made prodigiously fat to

enforce the moral. He was

originally built into the

front of a public house

called 'The Fortune of War',

which used to occupy

this site and was pulled

down in 1910.

'The Fortune of War' was

the Chief House of Call, 

north of the river, for

Resurrectionists in body

snatching days. Years ago.

the landlord used to show

the room where, on benches

round the walls, the bodies

were placed, labelled

with the snatchers'

names, waiting till the

surgeons at Saint

Bartholomew's could run

round and appraise them.

So, this statue represents God punishing the sin of gluttony, as the fire started at Pudding Lane and ended at Pie Corner.