Ye Olde Cock Tavern, Fleet Street

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.