The things you stumble upon when you go for a lunch time ramble. I discovered this intriguing sign on the former site of the Barclay & Perkins Brewery (1781-1955), which is just behind the current Globe Theatre.
Apparently General Haynau, from Austria, was not a very popular chappy because he had a reputation for flogging women. When he toured the brewery on a trip to London in 1850 two drayman jumped off a cart and beat him up.
That it's commemorated on a street plaque 160 years after the fact suggests it must have been quite a beating!
There's more at the wikipedia entry.
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