{Plaque on front of plinth:}
Sign of Black Bull Inn Holborn mentioned by Dickens in Martin Chuzzlewit.
Removed by demolition 1904.
{Plaque on side of plinth:}
This bull was erected at the offices of Messrs. Bull and Bull on this site by the late Rt. Hon. Sir William Bull, Bt. for many years Member of Parliament for Hammersmith.
This is a much travelled bull. It was sculpted by Obadiah Pulham at Woodbridge in Suffolk, during the early 19th century. Transported to London via the North Sea, and then by barge along the River Thames. It stood in Holborn for nearly a century, at the Black Bull Inn. Immediately prior to that being demolished the bull was removed, on 19 May 1904, to be precise.
The solicitor and Hammersmith MP, William Bull, (seeing a nominative affinity with the sculpture) arranged for the bull to be re-erected on the front of his offices at 269 King Street, see for a photo. The firm was 'Bull and Bull', probably him and his father, who was also a solicitor. When that building was demolished, sometime after 1954, the bull was moved a short distance to its current location, the forecourt of a 1966 pub.
Sources: and .
With the photo at the Hammersmith Society page we had a go at finding 269 King Street. We think it is shown on this , roughly central top, on the same block as "Thomas's Row" (which has 7 irregularly terraced properties along its north edge). The gardens and the shapes of the buildings in the photo match the north-west corner of that block. We think that's what is now the corner with Beaver Lane, just one block to the west of the bull's current location.
Site: Black Bull Inn, W6 (1 memorial)
W6, King Street, 257
From Google street view: 2012-2017 this was the Ravenscourt Arms but by November 2017 it had renamed itself after the sculpture as the Black Bull. When we visited in July 2018, it had closed and was looking very derelict. September 2022 - no improvement.
Again we are grateful to the excellent website for bringing this to our attention.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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