Golden Boy of Pye Corner

London


This small statue of a podgy naked child has a strange dedication: ‘This Boy is in Memmory [sic] Put up for the late Fire of London occasion'd by the Sin of Gluttony 1666’. All becomes clear, however, when you realise the Great Fire started in a bakery on Pudding Lane and burned itself out in what was once called Pye (Pie) Corner. This was interpreted as a sign that the fire was an act of God as punishment for the gluttony of Londoners.


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