Bell Savage Inn

[1] In 1453 (in the reign of Henry VI), a deed gave the building's name (in translation) as "Savage's Inn" or "The Bell on the Hoop" and located within the parish of St. Bridget (Bride) in Fleet Street.

[3] Also in the past it was rumored to be derived from the French phrase belle sauvage, but Hensleigh Wedgwood considered that interpretation with scepticism.

[5] In 1568, the Inn was bequeathed to the Cutlers' Company, an old City trade guild, for the purpose of exhibitions at Oxford and Cambridge and the benefit of the poor of the parish of St. Bride's.

The Inn itself was the building surrounding the inner court, which was overlooked by two tiers of covered balconies, from which the guest rooms were accessed.

The balconies surrounding the inner court served as the upper and lower circles, the rooms of the Inn became private "boxes" and the yard itself was the "pit".

[1] In the outer court were some private houses; Grinling Gibbons lived here for a period before 1677, and the quack Richard Rock also resided here.

[9] In 1684, the inn was advertising a "Rhynoceros, lately brought from the East Indies" which could be seen by the public for a small fee – the first rhinoceros to be exhibited in England.

La Belle Sauvage is the name of the first part of Philip Pullman's planned trilogy The Book of Dust .