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Fortune Of War,
Clerkenwell, EC1,
London
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The Fortune Of War was situated on a corner
originally known as Pie Corner, today at the junction of Giltspur Street and
Cock Lane, the name deriving from the magpie represented on the sign of an
adjoining tavern.
The Fortune of War on Pie Corner 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, initially built in the front of the pub,
commemorates the end of the fire.
In 1761, the tenant of the house Thomas Andrews was convicted of sodomy and
sentenced to death, but was pardoned by King George III in one of the first
cases of public debate about homosexuality in England.
Until the 19th century, the Fortune of War was the chief house of call north
of the River Thames for resurrectionists, being officially appointed by the
Royal Humane Society as a place "for the reception of drowned persons". The
landlord used to show the room whereon benches round the walls were placed
with the snatchers' names waiting till the surgeons at St Bartholomew's
Hospital could run round and appraise them.
The pub was demolished in 1910. |
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