68. The Rising Sun, Wych Street, 1890 (Black and white).
In 1900-01 all the picturesque but dilapidated old houses in Wych Street and the neighbouring Holywell Street were cleared away. Among them was the structure here represented on spectator's right which is at the south-east corner of Wych Street, with a front towards the church of St. Clement Danes. This public-house, then known as the Rising Sun, previously the Crooked Billet, stood nearly opposite to the entrance of Dane's Inn, which was built on the site of a more famous hostelry—the Angel—destroyed in 1854.
(9916 × 6716) D. 57-1896.
No. 69. THE COCK AND PIE, DRURY LANE.
69. The Cock and Pie, Drury Lane, 1880 (Black and white).
The plastered house which appears to the right of this drawing was for many years known as the Cock and Pie, or Cock and Magpie, public-house, but was turned to other uses long ago. Apart from its quaintness, it is worthy of record as having been possibly, I might say probably, for a time the residence of Nell Gwynn. Under the date May 1, 1667, Pepys, after saying how on his way to Westminster, he met "many milk-maids with their garlands upon their pails, dancing with a fiddler before them," refers to her in these words:—"Saw pretty Nelly standing at her lodging-door in Drury Lane in her smock sleeves and bodice looking upon me; she seemed a mighty pretty creature." Peter Cunningham, in his "Life of Nell Gwynn," places these lodgings at the top of Maypole Alley, over against the gate of Craven House, a position which exactly corresponds with that of the old Cock and Pie, and a view of this house is used to illustrate his volume. After 1838 the well-known bookseller, George Stockley, for some years occupied the building. He convinced himself of Nell Gwynn's connection with it, and his belief was shared by the late Edward Solly, F.R.S., who wrote an interesting letter on the subject to "Notes and Queries." The building, most likely, dated from the time of Charles I., and appears to be marked on Faithorne's map of 1658. The panelled house next door, which seemed coeval, was of a kind almost extinct. They stood on the south side of Drury Lane, and were both destroyed in the autumn of 1890. Messrs. W. H. Smith & Son's establishment in the Kingsway stands as nearly as may be on the site.
(10516 × 738) D. 58-1896.
70. House in Nevill's Court, Fetter Lane, 1891 (Water-colour).