The Panyer Boy

In the wall of Panyer Alley, off Paternoster Row, is an old carved stone of a boy sitting on a pannier and pressing a bunch of grapes between his hand and his foot, with an inscription and the date 1688. Stow said the alley took its name from a sign, and Hone guessed the stone was the old sign of a tavern there. Some people called it the Pick-my-toe, and its inscription claims the spot as the highest ground in the City. The stone can still be seen near St Paul’s.