Giltspur Street

Giltspur Street

Giltspur Street is a street in Smithfield, 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 (Bart's).

In 1381 King Richard II met the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt here on 15 June, 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 Wat Tyler away and stabbed him, and when Tyler took refuge in 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. The inscription 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.The street also gave its name to the Giltspur Street Compter, a small prison located on the street from 1791 to 1855.


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  • Giltspur Street Compter — The Giltspur Street Compter was a small Compter or prison, 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… …   Wikipedia

  • Giltspur Street —    South out of West Smithfield, at No 31 to Holborn Viaduct, Newgate Street and Old Bailey (P.O. Directory).    First mention: Gyltesporestrete alias Knyghtryders Strete, St Sepulchre s parish, 38 H. VIII. 1547 (L. and P. H. VIII. XXI. (2) p.… …   Dictionary of London

  • Ball Court, Giltspur Street —    East out of Giltspur Street, in Farringdon Ward Without (Collmgwood, 1907).    First mention: O. and M. 1677.    Called Bull Court in Horwood, 1799. Ball Yard, Rocque, 1746.    Site now occupied by the new Out Patient Department and other… …   Dictionary of London

  • Ball Yard, Giltspur Street —    See Ball Court, Giltspur Street …   Dictionary of London

  • Giltspur Street, Aldermanbury —    See Gayspur Lane …   Dictionary of London

  • Wood Street Counter — The Wood Street Counter, or Wood Street Compter, was a small prison within the City of London in England. It was primarily a debtors prison, and also held people accused of such misdemeanors as public drunkness, although some wealthier prisoners… …   Wikipedia

  • Bread Street Compter —    On the west side of Bread Street in Bread Street Ward. One of the two original Compters, pertaining to the Sheriffs, the other being in Poultry (S. 352).    Removed to Wood Street in 1555 (ib.), to Giltspur Street in 1791, closed 1854.    See… …   Dictionary of London

  • Wood Street Compter —    On the east side of Wood Street, in Cripplegate Ward Within.    One of the Sheriffs Prisons.    First mention: The Compter in Bread Street was removed to Wood Street in 1555 (S. 298) and Greyfriars Chronicle (Cam. Soc.), p.96.    Burnt in the… …   Dictionary of London

  • Skinner Street —    North west from Giltspur Street to Farringdon Street, in Farringdon Ward Within (O.S. 1848 51).    First formed in 1802 on the line of the present Holborn Viaduct to avoid the steep and winding ascent of Snow Hill.    It seems never to have… …   Dictionary of London

  • Knightriders Street, West Smithfield —    See Giltspur Street …   Dictionary of London

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