A name to conjure up a snigger, for there is indeed a giant cock on Cock Hill just around the corner from Liverpool Street Station.

This alley, and many of the others in the area are a legacy of a time when the area was mostly up-market garden suburbs on the edge of the City. In the 17th century, the rich moved west, and the large plots of land were slowly divided up and narrow routes introduced to get around. These routes slicing through former estates are the origins of the alleys that cluster around this part of London.

The divided plots of land were slowly taken over mostly by warehousing and factories, but is today mostly offices and shops. Cock Hill is today a cleaned up alley, wide enough and visible enough to be kept clear of ne’er do wells, and running around posh offices who are disinclined to see it used as a back alley rubbish dump.

Probably it’s most distinctive feature though is a giant blue cockerel, in tiles above a goods entrance.

The alley leads to New Street, which isn’t new. In fact, it’s an old street that used to be called Hand Alley, but was realigned and renamed in 1782.

I think we’ll avoid any extra references to cocks and hands thank you!

Although officially around the corner on New Street, there is an amazing gateway to a former warehouse building. The former Cooper’s Wool Warehouse was built in 1863 and converted into offices in 1981. The gatehouse, with its very distinctive Merino ram is now preserved as a listed monument.

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One comment
  1. Kevin Too says:

    Happy Christmas Ian 🙂
    Thank you for all your written gifts in 2017.

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