Aunt Sally based on a blackface doll itself inspired by a low-life character named "Black Sal", which appeared in an 1821 series of novellas entitled "Life of London" by Pierce Egan, a contemporary of Charles Dickens. The game dates back to the 17th century, although the name "Aunt Sally" may have been a later addition. It was traditionally played in central English pubs and fairgrounds. An Aunt Sally was originally the modelled head of an old woman with a clay pipe in her mouth; the object was for players to throw sticks at the head in order to break the pipe. The
The Old Queens Head cornice. The previous pub on the site was demolished in 1829. It was described by Walter Thornbury, writing in the 1870s, as Thornbury describes the interior with the surviving fireplace in detail: According to Absolute Publishing's London Visitor Guide, an unattributed rumour is that The Old Queen's Head is haunted like many London pubs, supposedly by both a woman and a girl in Tudor clothes. Thornbury, writing in 1878, also mentions the pub's alleged connection with Sir Walter Raleigh, though he denied its validity: The Old Queens Head The Old Queen’s Head is a pub on Essex Road in Islington,