The Boar's Head

A Dictionary of London by Henry A Harben.

On the north side of Great Eastcheap in the parish of St. Clement Eastcheap, at Nos. 20-22, near the Horse Shoe, devised 1556 for the use of that parish (Indenture 1620, in End. Ch. Rep. 1903, p. 2).


Old houses let on yearly tenancies (ib. 3).

It is curious that this house stands immediately opposite to the site identified with the Boar's Head Tavern alluded to by Shakespeare in his play of King Henry IV. Act ii. Sc. 2, which is always placed on the south side of Eastcheap. Is it possible that after the Great Fire, some confusion arose as to the original site of the house, and that after the rebuilding of the street, the name was given to a house on the south side of the street instead of on the north side?

It seems hardly likely that there would have been two houses bearing the same sign immediately opposite to each other in the same street.

The Boar's Head Tavern on the south side was removed for the formation of King William Street and the approaches to the new London Bridge 1830-1, and the site is nearly identical with that occupied by the statue of King William IV. at the junction of King William Street with Cannon Street, Eastcheap, etc.

A Dictionary of London by Henry A Harben.

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