Golden Boy of Pye Corner

This little cherub was spotted near Smithfield market on the way to have lunch with my brother.

He stands about 20' high above a short inscription :-
“This Boy is in Memmory Put up for the late FIRE of LONDON Occasion'd by the Sin of Gluttony, 1666”

Lots of you will know that the Fire started in Pudding Lane but how many know it was halted at Pye Corner. At some point in the 1700s this statue of a chubby boy was carved to decorate a pub on the site. This link shows the statue in its original position on the pub
By the 1700s theories of the Fire being a papist plot had subsided and the Fire was put down to the extravagant feasting of well off 17th century Londoners. The statute was intended to show a prodigiously fat boy as a warning to the dangers of overeating . Since then it is acknowledged that the Fire most likely started by accident and was nothing to do with over eating.

He does not look fat by today's standards. We would perhaps regard him as chubbily healthy.