3-021-107 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Demolition of the Saracen's Head, Snow-Hill, [London], 1868. 'Amidst the...clearances for the grand Holborn Valley improvement, the removal of the Saracen's Head is worthy of notice. It was one of those old inns, before the railway era, frequented by the old, ponderous, many-horsed waggon and well-appointed stage-coach...As to the adoption of the sign, there are several conjectures. By some it is thought to have been adopted in memory of the father of St. Thomas a Becket, who, traditionally, was a Saracen...Another explanation is derived from the story of King Richard the Crusader, who caused a Saracen's head to be served up to the ambassadors of Saladin...It will be recollected among the opening scenes in Mr. Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby", with how much lively humour this place has been sketched: "Just on that particular spot on Snow-hill...is the courtyard of the Saracen's Head Inn, its portal guarded by two Saracens' heads and shoulders, frowning upon you from each side of the gateway, and the inn itself garnished with another Saracen's head frowning upon you from the top of the yard...so that the general appearance of the pile is of the Saracenic order".' From "Illustrated London News", 1868.