Fighting Cocks (St. Albans)
The Fighting Cocks is an old inn in the historic city of St. Albans in Hertfordshire.
It is one of the inns claiming to be the oldest in England.
The Fighting Cocks is situated a little away from the present City Centre, at the bottom of Abbey Mill Lane, which leads down from St. Albans Abbey towards the site of the old Roman city of Verulamium.
It is beside the little River Ver, on the other side of which are the Abbey Mills. The site was used as a boat house during Offa's reign.
The main part of the building is octagonal. It was originally a mediaeval pigeon house, and converted for human habitation about 1600.
Oliver Cromwell is said to have occupied the building for one night, while his horse was stabled in what is now the bar.
The inn's unusual name refers to the fact that it was used as a cockpit from the 16th century. The name was changed briefly to the Fisherman when cockfighting became illegal in 1849.