David Castleton (Author)<p>Ye Olde Cock Tavern, Fleet Street, London. Originally built in the 1500s, it was frequented by literary figures including Samuel Pepys, Dr Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Charles Dickens and Alfred Lord Tennyson, who even composed a poem about buying port in the pub. In 1886, it moved across the road to its current site to make way for a branch of the Bank of England. The only one of its former customers who seems to have gone with it is Oliver Goldsmith. A barmaid putting out the trash is said to have seen a floating head in the yard and later recognised it in a portrait of Goldsmith. A window cleaner also encountered Goldsmith's ghost, who told him not to bother cleaning the windows of the top floor. The yard of the pub is the former graveyard of Temple Church, where Goldsmith is buried. <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/London" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>London</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/history" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>history</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/ghosts" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ghosts</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/paranormal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>paranormal</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/pubs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>pubs</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/literature" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>literature</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/folklore" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>folklore</span></a> <a href="https://universeodon.com/tags/weird" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>weird</span></a></p>