Cock Lane

The Cock Lane ghost was a purported haunting that attracted mass public attention in 1762. The location was a lodging in Cock Lane, a short road adjacent to London's Smithfield market and a few minutes' walk from St Paul's Cathedral. The event centred on three people: William Kent, a usurer from Norfolk; Richard Parsons, a parish clerk; and Parsons' daughter Elizabeth. Following the death during childbirth of Kent's wife, Elizabeth Lynes, he became romantically involved with her sister, Fanny. Canon law prevented the couple from marrying, but they nevertheless moved to London and lodged at the property in Cock Lane, then owned by Parsons. Several accounts of strange knocking sounds and ghostly apparitions were reported, although for the most part they stopped after the couple moved out, but following Fanny's death from smallpox and Kent's successful legal action against Parsons over an outstanding debt, they resumed. Parsons claimed that Fanny's ghost haunted his property and later his daughter. Regular séances were held to determine "Scratching Fanny's" motives; Cock Lane was often made impassable by the throngs of interested bystanders. The ghost appeared to claim that Fanny had been poisoned with arsenic and Kent was publicly suspected of being her murderer. But a commission whose members included Samuel Johnson concluded that the supposed haunting was a fraud. Further investigations proved the scam was perpetrated by Elizabeth Parsons, under duress from her father. Those responsible were prosecuted and found guilty; Richard Parsons was pilloried and sentenced to two years in prison. The Cock Lane ghost became a focus of controversy between the Methodist and Anglican churches and is referenced frequently in contemporary literature. Charles Dickens is one of several Victorian authors whose work alluded to the story and the pictorial satirist William Hogarth referenced the ghost in two of his prints.

Holy Sepulchre London formerly and in some official uses Saint Sepulchre-without-Newgate is the largest Anglican parish church in the City of London. It stands on the north side of Holborn Viaduct across a crossroads from the Old Bailey, and its parish takes in Smithfield Market. During medieval times, the site lay outside ("without") the city wall, west of the Newgate. It has London's musicians' chapel in which a book of remembrance sits and an October/November requiem takes place – unusual for a church associated with Low Church Evangelicalism. The church has two local army regiment memorials. The vicar is appointed by St John's College, Oxford, which has held the church's patronage since 1622. The church is within the Newgate Street Conservation Area.

The Saracen's Head was an inn on the north side of the street to the west of the church of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in Snow Hill, London.

The Fortune of War was an ancient public house in Smithfield, London. It was located on a corner originally known as 'Pie Corner', today at the junction of Giltspur Street and Cock Lane where the Golden Boy of Pye Corner resides, the name deriving from the magpie represented on the sign of an adjoining tavern. It is allegedly the place where the Great Fire of London stopped, after destroying a large part of the City of London in 1666. The statue of a cherub, the Golden Boy of Pye Corner, initially built in the front of the pub, commemorates the end of the fire.

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 indicates the place where it started. The statue of a naked boy is made of wood and is covered with gold; the figure was formerly winged. The late 19th-century building that incorporates it is a Grade II listed building but listed only for the figure.It bears the following small inscription below it: This Boy is in Memmory Put up for the late FIRE of LONDON Occasion'd by the Sin of Gluttony 1666. The lower inscription, approximately 10 ft (3.0 m) below the boy, 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.

Giltspur Street is a street in Smithfield in the City of London, running north–south from the junction of Newgate Street, Holborn Viaduct and Old Bailey, up to West Smithfield, and it is bounded to the east by St Bartholomew's Hospital. It was formerly known as Knightsriders Street, from the knights riding at the tournaments in Smithfield.In 1381 King Richard II met the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt here, promising to agree to the rebels' demands, which included a repeal of the Statute of Labourers that prevented workers changing jobs for better pay. However, during the negotiations William Walworth, the Lord Mayor of London, lured rebel Wat Tyler away and stabbed him; when Tyler sought refuge in the neighbouring St. Bartholemew's Church he was dragged out and beheaded. The revolt later subsided. Located on the junction of Giltspur Street and Cock Lane is the Golden Boy of Pye Corner, a cherub which is a symbol of gluttony, the sin which supposedly led to divine retribution in the form of the Great Fire of London. An inscription on the monument reads: "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." Also on Giltspur Street is a monument to the English essayist Charles Lamb, best known for his Essays of Elia and for co-writing the children's book Tales from Shakespeare. An inscription on the sculpture reads: Perhaps the most loved name in English literature who was a bluecoat boy here for 7 years. B·1775, D·1834.The street gave its name to the Giltspur Street Compter, a small prison located on the street from 1791 to 1855. The nearest London Underground station is St Paul's and the closest mainline railway stations are City Thameslink and Farringdon.

The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, is an ancient merchant guild of London, England associated with the silk and velvet trades.

The Giltspur Street Compter was a compter or small prison, designed by English architect and surveyor George Dance the Younger, mainly used to hold debtors. It was situated in Giltspur Street, Smithfield, close to Newgate, in the City of London, between 1791 and 1853.The Compter was adjacent to Christ's Hospital Boys' School (1553-1902). Its construction began in 1787, and the Compter was ready for occupation in 1791. In 1815 it took some prisoners from the nearby Poultry Compter prior to its closure. The Giltspur Street prison was itself closed in 1853 and demolished in 1854, the site being later occupied by the King Edward Buildings Royal Mail Sorting Office.

The Viaduct Tavern is a Grade II listed public house at 126 Newgate Street, Holborn, London. It was built in 1865 and the interior was remodeled in 1898–1900 by Arthur Dixon. It is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.The tavern is also known for reportedly being haunted, and has been the subject of several investigation shows, including BuzzFeed Unsolved.

Keevil and Keevil are butchers, and are the oldest company still operating from London's Smithfield Market.

The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that houses the Crown Court of England and Wales. The street outside follows the route of the ancient wall around the City of London, which was part of the fortification's bailey, hence the metonymic name. The Old Bailey has been housed in a succession of court buildings on the street since the sixteenth century, when it was attached to the medieval Newgate gaol. The current main building block was completed in 1902, designed by Edward William Mountford; its architecture is recognised and protected as a Grade II* listed building. An extension South Block was constructed in 1972, over the former site of Newgate gaol which was demolished in 1904. The Crown Court sitting in the Old Bailey hears major criminal cases from within Greater London. In exceptional cases, trials may be referred to the Old Bailey from other parts of England and Wales. As with most courts in England and Wales, trials at the Old Bailey are open to the public; however, they are subject to stringent security procedures.

The 1973 Old Bailey bombing (dubbed as Bloody Thursday by tabloids in Britain) was a car bomb attack carried out by the Provisional IRA (IRA) which took place outside the Old Bailey Courthouse on 8 March 1973. The attack was carried out by an 11-person active service unit (ASU) from the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade. The unit also exploded a second bomb which went off outside the Ministry of Agriculture near Whitehall in London at around the same time the bomb at the Old Bailey went off. This was the Provisional IRA's first major attack in England since the Troubles began in the late 1960s. One British civilian died of a heart attack attributed to the bombing, estimates of the injured range from 180 to 220 from the two bombings. Two additional bombs were found and defused. Nine people from Belfast were convicted six months later for the bombing, one person managed to escape and one was acquitted for providing information to the police.