London's Lost Rivers - The Cock and Pye Ditch (aka Marshland Ditch)
Seven Dials in Covent Garden was once once wasteland and the scene of the first appearance of the Great Plague
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Thomas Neale was an MP who transformed the Cock and Pye Ditch into a sewer
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The site of the Cock and Pye Inn in St Martins Lane, now a restaurant
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The Cock and Pye ditch circled an area in St Giles called Marshland also known as the Cock and Pye Fields but now known as Seven Dials in Covent Garden. It ran south down St Martins Lane and into the Thames near where Embankment tube station now stands.
Named after the Cock and Pye Inn which stood nearby Marshland and named after a luxury dish “peacock in a pie” whereby the peacock is preserved as much as possible with the head of the bird elevated above the crust, and the tail fanned out to its full extent.
The origins of the ditch are unknown, although it’s in records that go back to the 12th century when the old leper hospital of St Giles in the Fields was founded here by Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I. The area was described as wet and marshy and was surrounded by ditches - the Pituance Croft Ditch and to the south was the “great Marshland Ditch.”
The Marshland area was not held in high esteem and was mainly wasteland and the ditch had the reputation of being a public nuisance and the area was the scene of the first appearance of the Great Plague late in 1664.
Many of the roads in the 17th century in this vicinity were bordered by other ditches such as the Southampton Sewer, Blemends Ditch & Spencer’s Ditch. Various rivulets crossed the Strand on their way to the Thames and there were two brick arches (known as Ivy Bridge and Strand Bridge) for pedestrians to cross over these water courses.
Thomas Neale MP took on the Marshland area as a project in the late 17th century, arched over the Cock and Pye ditch transforming it into a sewer and commissioned England's leading stonemason at that time to construct a Sundial Pillar in 1693 as the centrepiece of his development in Seven Dials (the Pillar was in fact topped by six sundial faces). It was regarded as one of London's 'great public ornaments' with the layout of seven streets leading off it in a star shape. Neale's name lives on locally (albeit losing the second 'e') in Neal Street , Neal's Yard and Thomas Neal's.
The Pillar was allegedly pulled down by a mob in 1773, in a search for buried gold and was re-erected at Weybridge in Surrey. A replacement sundial column was constructed on the same site in the 1980s, to the original design. However, the Seven Dials Trust write: "Every book on London, including the official Survey of London, refers to the story that the Pillar was pulled down in 1773 by the Mob looking for buried gold. However, research by Trust Chairman David Bieda revealed that the Pillar was removed by order of the Paving Commissioners in 1773 in an attempt to rid the area of 'undesirables' who congregated around it".
Not surprisingly there in no longer any evidence of the Cock and Pye – either the ditch - or the Inn which was afterwards renamed Two Angels and Crown before being demolished. Restaurants sit on the site of the Inn in a modern building complex. Just up the road from here is a small grate in the road where you can see (and smell) the sewer flowing beneath
Named after the Cock and Pye Inn which stood nearby Marshland and named after a luxury dish “peacock in a pie” whereby the peacock is preserved as much as possible with the head of the bird elevated above the crust, and the tail fanned out to its full extent.
The origins of the ditch are unknown, although it’s in records that go back to the 12th century when the old leper hospital of St Giles in the Fields was founded here by Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I. The area was described as wet and marshy and was surrounded by ditches - the Pituance Croft Ditch and to the south was the “great Marshland Ditch.”
The Marshland area was not held in high esteem and was mainly wasteland and the ditch had the reputation of being a public nuisance and the area was the scene of the first appearance of the Great Plague late in 1664.
Many of the roads in the 17th century in this vicinity were bordered by other ditches such as the Southampton Sewer, Blemends Ditch & Spencer’s Ditch. Various rivulets crossed the Strand on their way to the Thames and there were two brick arches (known as Ivy Bridge and Strand Bridge) for pedestrians to cross over these water courses.
Thomas Neale MP took on the Marshland area as a project in the late 17th century, arched over the Cock and Pye ditch transforming it into a sewer and commissioned England's leading stonemason at that time to construct a Sundial Pillar in 1693 as the centrepiece of his development in Seven Dials (the Pillar was in fact topped by six sundial faces). It was regarded as one of London's 'great public ornaments' with the layout of seven streets leading off it in a star shape. Neale's name lives on locally (albeit losing the second 'e') in Neal Street , Neal's Yard and Thomas Neal's.
The Pillar was allegedly pulled down by a mob in 1773, in a search for buried gold and was re-erected at Weybridge in Surrey. A replacement sundial column was constructed on the same site in the 1980s, to the original design. However, the Seven Dials Trust write: "Every book on London, including the official Survey of London, refers to the story that the Pillar was pulled down in 1773 by the Mob looking for buried gold. However, research by Trust Chairman David Bieda revealed that the Pillar was removed by order of the Paving Commissioners in 1773 in an attempt to rid the area of 'undesirables' who congregated around it".
Not surprisingly there in no longer any evidence of the Cock and Pye – either the ditch - or the Inn which was afterwards renamed Two Angels and Crown before being demolished. Restaurants sit on the site of the Inn in a modern building complex. Just up the road from here is a small grate in the road where you can see (and smell) the sewer flowing beneath
