Pub names are used to identify and differentiate
each
public house. Modern names are
sometimes a
marketing ploy or attempt to
create 'brand awareness', frequently using a comic theme thought to
be memorable -
Slug and Lettuce for a
pub chain being an example. Interesting origins
are not confined to old or traditional names, however. Names and
their origins can be broken up into a relatively small number of
categories:
As many
public houses are centuries
old, many of their early customers were
unable to read, and pictorial signs could be
readily recognised when lettering and words could not be
read.
Although the word
The appears on much public house
signage, it is not considered to be an important part of the name,
and is therefore ignored in the following examples.
Likewise, the word
Ye should also be ignored as it is only
an archaic spelling of
The. The Y represents a now
obsolete symbol (the
thorn, still
used in
Icelandic) which
represented the
th sound and looked rather like a
blackletter y.
Similarly, other archaic spellings such as "olde worlde" are not
distinguished below.
Alcohol related
- Barley Mow: Barley is
laid in a malting, watered and heated gently
until the grain germinates. Cooking then kills
the germination process, and the result
is called malt. Malt is the ingredient in
beer which gives it its sweet taste and colour.
The mow is a stack.
- Barrels: A cask or keg containing 36 Imperial
gallons of liquid, especially beer. Other
sizes include: pin, 36 pints; firkin, 9 gallons; kilderkin, 18 gallons; half-hogshead, 27 gallons;
hogshead, 54 gallons; butt, probably 104 gallons.
- Brewery Tap: A public house originally found
on-site or adjacent to a brewery and often
showcasing its products to visitors; although, now that so many
breweries have closed, the house may be nowhere near an open
brewery.
- Hop Inn: Hop flowers are
the ingredient in beer which gives it its bitter taste, though this
name is really intended as a pun.
- Hop Pole: The poles up which hops grow in the
field.
- (Sir) John
Barleycorn: A character of English traditional folk
music and folklore, similar to a Green Man. He is annually cut down at the ankles,
thrashed, but always reappears — an allegory of growth and harvest
based on barley.
- Leather Bottle or Leathern
Bottle: A container in which beer or wine was carried
around as a handy drink, now succeeded by a bottle or can.
- Malt Shovel: An implement used in a malting to turn over the barley grain.
- Three Tuns: Based on the arms of two City of London
guilds, the Worshipful Company of
Vintners and the Worshipful Company of
Brewers.
Colour
Colour appears in a number of pub names, sometimes associated with
an object which may have been used to identify the pub, such as
Blue Post or
Blue Door, or as a symbol, such as
blue for hope, which could be combined with another symbol such as
an anchor, to create the popular
Blue Anchor name.
Blue could
also be used as a symbol of political allegiance to the Liberal Party, such as with the Manners
family in Grantham
, or it could
be incidental, as with the Blue Pig in Telford, which
acquired the name due to the local workers producing blue pig iron.
Other popular colours are red as in
Red Bull and
Red
Lion (the second most popular pub sign with over 600
examples), black as in
Black Bear and
Black Cap,
and green as in
Green Man.
Food
Found objects
Before painted inn signs became commonplace publicans would
identify their establishment by hanging or standing a distinctive
object outside the pub.
- Boot
- Copper Kettle
- Crooked Billet (a bent branch from a
tree)
Heraldry
The ubiquity of the naming element
arms shows how
important
heraldry has been in the naming
of pubs.
Items appearing on coats of arms
- Bear and Ragged Staff: a badge of the earls of Warwick. Refers to bear baiting (see Dog and Bear in the
Sports section).
- Checkers or Chequers: Often
derived from the coat of arms of a
local landowner (see Variation of the
field#Chequy), this name and sign originated in ancient Rome
when a chequer board indicated that a bar also provided banking
services. The checked board was use as an aid to counting and is
the origin of the word exchequer.
The last
pub to use the older, now American spelling of checker was in
Baldock
, Hertfordshire but this closed circa 1990; all pubs
now use the modern "q" spelling.
- Horns: Although this is often seen as a
derivation of Richard II's
white hart emblem, it may also be an echo of a
pagan figure, Herne the
Hunter.
- Ostrich feathers have been used as a royal
badge since the time of Edward
III, particularly the Three Feathers badge of
the Prince of Wales.
- Red Dragon of
Cadwaladr: the symbol of Wales.
- Red Lion is the name of over six hundred pubs,
outnumbered only by The Crown. It thus can stand for an
archetypal British pub. The lion is one of
the most common charges in
coats of arms, second only to the
cross, and thus the Red Lion as a
pub sign probably has multiple origins: in the arms or crest of a local landowner, now perhaps
forgotten; as a personal badge of John of
Gaunt, founder of the House of
Lancaster; or in the royal
arms of Scotland, conjoined to the arms of England after the
Stuart succession in 1603.
- Talbot or
Talbot Arms refers to an actual breed of hunting
dog, now extinct, which is also a heraldic hound, and badge of the
Talbot family, Earls of Shrewsbury.
- Black Lion is the name of an
ancient pub opposite the railway station in Northampton
.
- Unicorn
- White Bear
- White Hart: The
emblem of King Richard II of
England. It became so popular as an inn sign in his reign that
it was adopted by many later inns and taverns. Richard II
introduced legislation compelling public houses to display a sign,
and at one time the White Hart was so ubiquitous as to become
almost generic, in the same way that we call a vacuum cleaner a
Hoover today.
- White Horse: The
sign of the House of Hanover,
adopted by many eighteenth century inns to demonstrate loyalty to
the new Royal dynasty. A white horse is also
the emblem of the County of Kent
. The
name can also refer to the chalk horses carved into
hillsides.
- Black Griffin: a pub in
Lisvane
, Cardiff
, named after the coat of arms carried by the lords
of the manor.
- Rising Sun: symbol of the east and of
optimism.
Names starting with the word "Three" are often based on the arms of
a London
Livery company or trade
guild :
Landowners
Many
coats of arms appear as pub signs,
usually honouring a local landowner.
- Percy Arms, Otterburn,
Northumberland
, commemorates the Battle of Otterburn
in 1388, where Sir Henry
Percy, son of the Earl of
Northumberland, led the English army. There is also a Percy
Arms in Tynemouth, North Tyneside
, and various other locations in the North East of England.
- Silver Lion, Lilley,
Hertfordshire
: from the arms of the Sowerby family.
- Stanley Arms, Huyton
, near
Liverpool
: after Frederick Stanley, 16th
Earl of Derby.
- Melbourne Arms, Duston
, Northampton: after former local landowner Lord Melbourne
Location
An "arms" name can just derive from where the pub actually is.
- Bedford Arms, Bedford Road,
Hitchin
, Hertfordshire, shows the arms of the town of
Bedford
. The more usual derivation is for the
Duke of Bedford whose seat is at the
nearby Woburn Abbey.
- Harpenden Arms, in the
middle of Harpenden
, Hertfordshire. Was originally called the
Railway as the pub is along the road from the
railway station.
Occupations
- See also Trades, tools and
products below
Some "arms" signs refer to working occupations. These may show
people undertaking such work or the arms of the appropriate London
livery company. This class of name
may be only just a name but there are stories behind some of them.
Historic events
- Olde Trip to Jerusalem
, Nottingham
, one of the claimants to the title of oldest pub in
Britain, said to have been a stopping-off place for the Crusaders on the way to the Holy Land. "Trip" here has the old meaning
of a stop, not the modern journey. The pub was once called the
Pilgrim, which is probably the real story behind the name.
The pub has the date 1189 painted on its masonry, which is the year
King Richard I ascended to the
throne. Like many elderly pubs, the Trip carries "Ye" before its
name, with an E on the end of "old" another "olde worlde"
affectation.
- Trafalgar: commemorating
the Battle of
Trafalgar
. There are many pubs called the Nelson and an Emma Hamilton pub too in Wimbledon Chase where
Nelson squired her. Famous is the
Trafalgar Tavern: part of the Greenwich Maritime
World Heritage site at Greenwich.
- Rose and Crown: King Edward III used a golden rose as
a personal badge, and two of his sons adapted it by changing the
colour: John of
Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, used a red rose, and Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke
of York, used a white rose. The dynastic conflicts between
their descendants are collectively called the Wars of the Roses. In 1485 Henry Tudor, a descendant of Lancaster,
defeated Richard III of the
York dynasty and married Richard's niece Elizabeth of York. Since then the combined
red-and-white Tudor rose, often crowned,
has been a symbol of the monarchy of England.
- Royal
Oak: After the Battle of Worcester
(1651) in the English
Civil War, the defeated Prince Charles escaped the scene with
the Roundheads on his tail.
He
managed to reach Bishops
Wood
in Staffordshire,
where he found an oak tree (now known as the
Boscobel Oak near Boscobel
House
). He climbed the tree and hid in it for a
day while his obviously short-sighted pursuers strolled around
under the tree looking for him. The hunters gave up, Prince Charles
came down and escaped to France (the Escape of Charles II). He became
King Charles II on the
Restoration of the Monarchy. To
celebrate this good fortune, 29 May (Charles'
birthday) was declared Royal Oak Day and the pub name remembers
this. The Royal Naval ship HMS Royal Oak gets its name from the same
source. Early ships were built of the heartwood of oak.
- Saracen's Head and Turk's
Head: Saracens and Turks were among the enemies faced by
Crusaders. This is also a reference to the
Barbary pirates that raided the
coasts from the Crusades until the early 19th century.
- Man on the Moon, Northfield,
Birmingham
: originally called The Man 'in the
Moon and renamed on the day of the first moon landing in
1969.
Literature
Myths and legends
Images from
myth and
legends are evocative and memorable.
- George and Dragon: St George is the patron
saint of England
and his conflict with a dragon is essential to his story. This sign is
a symbol of English
nationalism.
- Green Man: a spirit
of the wild woods. The original images are in churches as a face
peering through or made of leaves and petals; this character is the
Will of the Wisp, the Jack of the
Green. Some pub signs will show the green man as he appears in
English traditional sword dances (in green hats). The Green Man is
not the same character as Robin Hood,
although the two may be linked. Some pubs which were the Green Man
have become the Robin Hood; there are no pubs in Robin's
own county of Nottinghamshire
named the Green Man but there are
Robin Hoods.
- Robin Hood,
sometimes partnered by his second in charge to form the name
Robin Hood and Little
John. Other Robin Hood names can be found
throughout Arnold, Nottinghamshire
. These were given to pubs built in the new
estates of the 1960s by the Home Brewery of Daybrook,
Nottinghamshire: Arrow, Friar
Tuck, Longbow, Maid
Marian and Major
Oak
.
- Captain's Wife, near the
medieval trading port of Swanbridge
on the south Wales coast near Penarth
. The pub was converted during the 1970s from
a row of fishermen's cottages. There is a local legend of a ghostly
wife keeping endless vigil after her husband's boat was lost in a
storm.
Personal names or titles
- Marquis of
Granby: a general in the 18th
century. He showed a great concern for the welfare of his men upon
their retirement and provided funds for many ex-soldiers to
establish taverns, which were subsequently named after him.
- Prince of Wales: see Royalty
below.
- Duke of
Cambridge
- Nell Gwyn: mistress
of King Charles II.
- Lord Nelson:
Quite a common name (in various forms) throughout England but
especially in Norfolk, where the admiral was born. The Hero of
Norfolk at Swaffham
, Norfolk, portrays Nelson.
- Duke of
Wellington
- A
number of pubs are known by the names of former landlords and
landladies, for instance Nellies (originally the White
Horse) in Beverley
, and Ma Pardoe's (officially the Olde
Swan) in Netherton.
- General
Burgoyne
Places
Politically incorrect
- All labour in vain or Labour in
vain. At various locations. Probably of Biblical origins,
in past times the name has been frequently displayed on the sign as
representing the vain efforts of a person in trying to scrub the
blackness off a black child. Now deemed offensive, the signs have
been mostly replaced with more innocuos depictions of wasted
effort.
- Black Boy Inn
, Caernarfon, North Wales, has received at
least a dozen complaints from visitors over the name, which dates
back at least 250 years. However, the police say they have
not received any formal complaints.
The pub itself (including nicknames)
- Crooked Chimney, Lemsford
, Hertfordshire
: The pub's chimney is
distinctively crooked.
- Crooked House, nickname of
the Glynne Arms, Himley
,
Staffordshire. Because of mining subsidence, one side of the pub has a pronounced
list — so much so it is difficult to put one's glass on a table
without spilling beer. It is said if after leaving the pub you turn
round and the building is perfectly perpendicular, you've had too
much to drink.
- Cupola House, Bury St
Edmunds
, Suffolk: This is so named as it has a cupola on its roof.
- Hole in the Wall. The official or nick-name of
a number of very small pubs.
- Nutshell, Bury St
Edmunds: one of the foremost claimants to be the smallest
pub in the UK and maybe the world.
- Red House, Newport
Pagnell
, and on the old A43 between Northampton and Kettering
: red or reddish painted buildings.
- The Swiss Cottage was built in Swiss chalet style. It gave its name to
an underground
station
and an area of London
.
- White Elephant, Northampton, Northamptonshire
. Originally built as a hotel to accommodate
visitors to the adjacent Northampton Racecourse, the building
became a "white elephant" (useless
object) when horse racing was stopped at Northampton Racecourse in
1904.
Puns and corruptions
Pub heritage: Nowhere Inn Particular,
now closed
Although
puns became increasingly popular
through the twentieth century, they should be considered with care.
Supposed corruptions of foreign phrases usually have much simpler
explanations. Names for pubs that appear nonsensical may have come
from corruptions of old slogans or phrases, or of certain nobles'
or politicians' names. Often, these corruptions evoke a visual
image which comes to signify the pub; these images had particular
importance for identifying a pub on signs and other media before
literacy became widespread.
- Bag o'Nails: Thought by the romantic to be a
corrupted version of "Bacchanals" but
really is just a sign once used by ironmongers. The pub of this name in Bristol,
England
was named in the 1990s for the former reason,
though the latter is more prevalent.
- Bull and Mouth: Believed to
celebrate the victory of Henry
VIII at "Boulogne
Mouth" or Harbour. Also applies to Bull and
Bush (Boulogne Bouche).
- Case is Altered: Probably a corruption of the
Latin phrase Casa Alta ('high house') or Casa
Altera ('second house').
- Cat and Fiddle: a
corruption of Caton le Fidèle (a governor of Calais
loyal to
King Edward III).
Alternatively from Katherine la
Fidèle, Henry VIII's first wife.
- Cock and Bull: a play on "cock and bull
story". This term, in fact, derives from the
Cock and the Bull, two pubs in Stony
Stratford
,
Buckinghamshire, which are close neighbours and rival coaching inns. There was a great rivalry
between the clientele of the two houses and they would tell
increasingly unbelievable stories of their own prowess. Thus,
stories containing fictitious tosh are now known as "cock and bull
stories".
- Dew Drop Inn: A pun on "do drop in".
- Dirty Duck. The Black Swan, as in
Stratford-on-Avon
.
- Dirty Habit: Sited on the
route of the Pilgrims'
Way
, the name is a play on the contemptuous phrase and
a reference to the clothing of monks
who passed by on a pilgrimage to Canterbury
Cathedral
.
- Elephant and Castle
: Possibly a corruption of "la Infanta de Castile". It is popularly
believed amongst residents of Elephant and Castle that a 17th century publican near Newington
named his tavern after the
Spanish
princess who was affianced
to King Charles I of
England. The prohibition of this marriage by Church
authorities in 1623 was a cause of war with Spain so it seems
unlikely to have been a popular name. A more probable and
prosaic explanation is that the name derives from the arms of the
Worshipful Company of
Cutlers, a London trade guild; an elephant carrying a
castle-shaped howdah can also be seen on the
arms of the City of Coventry
.
- Goat and Compasses: Believed by some to be a
corrupted version of the phrase "God encompasseth us", but more
likely to be based on the arms of the Worshipful Company of
Cordwainers. Cordwainers made shoes from goat skin.
- The Honest lawyer, e.g. in
Folkestone
- Hop Inn: similar to the Dew Drop
Inn.
- Jolly Taxpayer in Portsmouth
.
- The Library: So students and others can say
they're in 'the library'.
- Nag's Head. Pub signs can play on the double
meaning of Nag — a horse or a scolding
woman.
- Nowhere, Plymouth
; Nowhere Inn Particular, Croydon
: Wife calls husband on his mobile and asks where he
is. He answers truthfully "Nowhere".
- Office: as above.
- Ostrich, Ipswich
: originally Oyster Reach (the old name has
since been restored on the advice of historians).
- Pig and Whistle: a corruption of the
Anglo-Saxon saying "piggin wassail" "meaning good health".
- Swan With Two Necks: In the
United
Kingdom
, swans have traditionally been
the property of the reigning Monarch. However, in the 16th
century, Queen Elizabeth I granted
the right to ownership of some swans to the Worshipful Company of
Vintners. In order to be able to tell which Swan belonged to
whom, it was decided that Vintners' swans should have their beaks
marked with two notches, or nicks. In those days, 'neck' was
another form of 'nick' and so the Vintners spotted that a Swan With
Two Necks could afford them a rather clever pun, and a striking pub
sign.
While these corruptions are amusing there are usually more
substantiated explanations available.
Religious
Public houses can take their names from
religious symbolism
- Anchor, Hope & Anchor,
Anchor & Hope: From the Letter to the Hebrews (6:19): "We have
this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope."
- Cross Keys: The sign of St
Peter, the gatekeeper of Heaven.
- Lamb & Flag: From the Gospel of John (1:29): "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the
world." The Lamb is seen carrying a flag (usually of
St. George) and is the symbol of the
Knights Templar, the Worshipful Company of
Merchant Taylors, and St John's College, Oxford
. A pub of this name appeared in the
popular BBC sitcom Bottom.
- Five Ways: Possibly referring to the "Five
Ways" of Thomas Aquinas, five reasons for the existence of
God.
- Lion & Lamb: The lion is a symbol of the
Resurrection, the lamb a symbol of the
Redeemer.
- Mitre: A bishop's
headgear, a simple sign easily recognisable by the illiterate.
In
Glastonbury
the Mitre is adjacent to a church.
- Salutation: The greeting of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary when informing her she was to
carry Jesus Christ.
- Shepherd & Flock may refer to Christ (the
Shepherd) and the people (his flock) but may also just mean the
agricultural character and his charges.
- Three Crowns: The Magi,
but also see Heraldry above.
- Three Kings: The Magi.
Royalty
Royal names have always been popular (except under the
Commonwealth). It demonstrated the
landlord's loyalty to authority (whether he was loyal or not),
especially after the
Restoration of
the Monarchy.
See also
Heraldry above.
Ships
- Ark Royal : the name
of five ships of the Royal Navy from
1587, from the time of the Spanish
Armada, through the Dardanelles
Campaign and the hunt for the Bismarck with the current ship in
service since 1981. There is a pub of the name in Wells-next-the-Sea
, Norfolk.
- Mayflower, famous for
sailing the Pilgrim Fathers to
Plymouth Colony in 1620.
A pub in
Rotherhithe
.
- Cutty Sark
, a clipper in dry
dock and a pub nearby in Greenwich
.
- Golden
Hind, Portsmouth: Sir Francis
Drake's galleon.
- Prospect of Whitby
, on the north bank of the Thames at Wapping
, London.
- Victory
, Station Road, Chertsey
, Surrey, Marble Arch
, St.
Mawes
and elsewhere
- Albion: at Penarth, near Cardiff, South
Wales
, and at West
Kensington, London
- Vanguard, Keal Cotes
, Lincolnshire
(now renamed)
- London Trader, Hastings
- Mary Rose
, Southsea: named after Henry VIII's
battleship of that name.
- Ship Leopard, near Portsmouth Hard: named after several Royal Navy ships, the
most recent having been an anti-aircraft frigate.
- Invincible, Portsmouth: named
after the aircraft carrier and battlecruiser associated with the
First and Second battles of the Falklands
.
- Resolute, Poplar
High
Street, London.
- Waverley, Carisbrooke
, Isle of
Wight
: named after the paddle steamer.
- Sloop,
Wootton
Bridge
, Isle of Wight
- Pilot Boat, Bembridge
, Isle of Wight and Lyme Regis
, Dorset
- Llandoger Trow
, a 17th century pub with literary
connections in Bristol.
Sports
Games
- Bat and ball: a reference
to cricket used by a number of pubs, one of which gave its
name to a railway station
.
- Boathouse, Cambridge
— not far from the real boathouses.
- Cricketers: can be sited near or opposite land
on which cricket is (or was) played.
- Cricket Players: a version
of the Cricketers found in Nottingham and probably elsewhere.
- Hand and Racquet, Wimbledon, near the All
England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
. A fictional version is referenced several
times in Tony Hancock scripts.
- Larwood and Voce, West
Bridgford
,
Nottinghamshire: Harold Larwood and
Bill Voce were two internationally
renowned fast-bowlers who played for Nottinghamshire and
England between the world wars. This pub is at the
side of the Trent
Bridge
cricket ground, the home of Nottingham County
Cricket Club.
- Test Match, West
Bridgford,
Nottinghamshire: an international game of cricket.
This
beautiful art deco Grade II listed pub is
to be found near Trent
Bridge at the other end of Central Avenue, a ground on
which test matches are played.
- Trent Bridge Inn, West
Bridgford,
Nottinghamshire, the most famous of cricketing pubs sited on the
edge of the Trent
Bridge Cricket Ground, is not named after the ground but
for the bridge itself. This was a strategic crossing place of the
River Trent protected by Nottingham
Castle
. Ben Clark, the owner of the Inn in 1832,
was a cricket enthusiast and decided he
would like a cricket pitch in his back garden. It was that small
pitch which evolved into one of the world's premier test match venues.
Football club nicknames can be used for pub names:
Hunting and other "blood" sports
Topography
- Bishop's Finger: after a
type of signpost found on the Pilgrims'
Way in Kent, said to resemble a bishop's finger.
- Castle: usually a
prominent local landmark.
- Fountain Inn: Might refer to an actual
fountain or natural spring.
- First In, Last Out: A pub on the edge of a
town. It's the first pub on the way in and last on the way out.
Does not refer to the habits of any of the pub's clientele as some
signs suggest.
- Half Way House: This one
is situated half-way between two places; but with the pub of this
name at Camden
Town
it's anyone's guess which two places it's half-way
between.
- First and Last, nickname
of The Redesdale Arms, the nearest pub to the border between
England and Scotland, on the A68 between Rochester and Otterburn in Northumberland
.
- (number) Mile Inn' :
Usually the distance to the centre of the nearest prominent town,
as in the Four Mile Inn at Bucksburn
, Aberdeen, and the Five Mile House, near Cirencester
.
- The Strugglers, near a gallows, refers to how people being hanged would struggle for air. Ironically the
famous executioner Albert
Pierrepoint was landlord of the Help the Poor
Struggler at Hollinwood
, near Oldham
, for several years after World War II, and had to
hang one of his own regulars, James
Corbitt.
- Windmill: a prominent
feature of the local landscape at one point. Pubs with this name
may no longer be situated near a standing mill, but there's a good
chance they're close to a known site and will almost certainly be
on a hill or other such breezy setting. Clues to the presence of a
mill may also be found in the naming of local roads and
features.
- World's End. A pub on the outskirts of a town,
especially if on or beyond the protective city wall. Examples are found
in Camden and Edinburgh
.
Trades, tools and products
- Axe 'n Cleaver in Much Birch
, or Altrincham
, also Boston, Lincolnshire
- Blacksmith's Arms,
with the pun of the actual blacksmiths arms and their strength
- Blind Beggar
. The pub of that name in Whitechapel
is associated with the foundation of the Salvation Army in the 19th century and
gangland violence in the 1960s.
- Butcher: the Butchers Arms
can be found in Aberdeen
, Sheepscombe
, Stroud
, and Woolhope
- Compasses, Abbots
Langley
, Hertfordshire, dates from the 17th Century.
- Fisherman's Arms, Birgham
near Coldstream
- Foresters, Brockenhurst
in the New
Forest
- Gun Barrels: at Edgbaston
in Birmingham, a city known for its metal-working
and gunmaking trades.
- Harrow: A harrow
breaks up the soil after it has been turned over by the plough to a
finer tilth ready for sowing.
- Harewood End: Hare,
Woodland.
- Mason's Arms
- Oyster Reach at Wherstead
, Ipswich
- Tappers Harker (Long Eaton
, Nottingham): a railway worker who listened to
the tone of a hammer being hit onto a railway wagon wheel, to check
its soundness. Similar to the Wheeltappers and Shunters
fictional pub of the 1970s show
- Plough: an easy object
to find to put outside a pub in the countryside. Some sign artists
depict the plough as the constellation;
this consists of seven stars and so leads to the name the
Seven Stars found in Redcliffe, Bristol, Shincliffe
, County Durham, Chancery Lane
, Robertsbridge
and High Holborn
.
- Plough and Harrow,
Drakes
Broughton
, Worcs: A combination of the two farming
implements.
- Propeller, Croydon (now closed) and Bembridge
- Ship Inn from Irvine
to Oundle
- Sailor, Addingham
near Ilkley
; Jolly Sailor at St Athan
and at Sandown
, Isle of Wight
- Woodman
Transport
Air
- Flying
Bedstead, Hucknall
, Nottinghamshire: Name given to the prototype
aircraft which eventually led to the development of the Harrier VTOL
jet. It was based at Rolls Royce's test station near Hucknall
and now can be seen in the Science Museum
, London. The Harrier is also the
name of a pub in Hucknall, and one in Hamble-le-Rice
, Hampshire.
- Red Arrow, Lutterworth
, Leicestershire: a pub with a sloping triangular
roof, named after the RAF aerobatics team. The pub was formerly
called the "flying saucer" for its unusual shape, and has also been
described as a Star Destroyer from the Star Wars films.
- Flying
Boat (now demolished) in Calshot
, Hampshire, commemorated
the part that the area played in the development of these aircraft
between 1920 and 1940.
- Hinkler road and pub in
Thornhill, Hampshire
, named after Bert
Hinkler.
- Comet,
Hatfield: named after the de Havilland
aircraft built nearby.
Rail
Five
stations on the London
Underground system are named after pubs: Royal
Oak
, Elephant & Castle
, Angel
, Manor House
, Swiss Cottage. The area of Maida Vale
, which has a Bakerloo
line station
, is named after a pub called the "Heroes of Maida"
after the Battle of Maida in
1806.
Mainline
stations named after pubs include Bat
& Ball in Sevenoaks
.
Road
- Coach and Horses: A simple
and common name found from Clerkenwell
to Kew
, Soho
to Portsmouth.
- Perseverance: Name of a stage coach. The Perseverance in
Bedford probably alludes to John
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,
Bedford being Mr Bunyan's home town.
- Steamer, Welwyn
, Hertfordshire: It is found at the top of a steep
hill where carriers required an extra horse (a cock-horse) to help
get the wagon up the hill. After its exertion the cock-horse
could be seen standing steaming on a cold day as its sweat
evaporated.
- Terminus: Usually found where a tram route once terminated, sited near the tram
terminus.
- Tram Depot, Cambridge: Occupies the building which once was the stables
of Cambridge's tramway depot.
- Waggon and Horses: Another simple transport
name (prior to American influence, the British English spelling of 'wagon' featured
a double 'g', retained on pub signs such as this one).
- Wait for the Waggon,
Bedford and Wyboston
, Bedfordshire: This is the name of the regimental
march of The Royal Corps of Transport (now The Royal Logistic
Corps), whose troops frequently use this route; the latter is sited
on the Great North
Road.
- Traveller's Rest, Northfield, Birmingham: a historic coaching
inn on the main road to Bristol.
Water
- Navigation: Usually situated alongside a
canal towpath. Many pubs take their names from
the company which once owned a nearby railway line, canal or
navigation. For example:
- Grand Junction
, Bulbourne, Hertfordshire; High
Holborn and Harlesden
, London.
- Grand Union
, in Westbourne
Park, Camden and Maida
Vale
- Great
Northern, in Langley Mill
and Thackley
- Great Western, in Paddington
, Yeovil
and Wolverhampton
- North Western: London and North Western
Railway Company
- Trent
Navigation: Trent Navigation Company and a pub in Nottingham
- Fellows, Morton and
Clayton: Canal Company and a pub in Nottingham
Most common
An
authoritative list of the most common pub names in Great
Britain
is hard to establish, owing to ambiguity in what
classifies as a public house as opposed
to a licensed restaurant or nightclub, and so lists of this form tend to vary
hugely. A 2007 survey by CAMRA
of pubs contained in their database gave the
following as the ten most common. The number of each is
given in brackets.
- Crown (704)
- Red Lion (668)
- Royal Oak (541)
- Swan (451)
- White Hart (431)
- Railway (420)
- Plough (413)
- White Horse (379)
- Bell (378)
- New Inn (372)
Unusual names
Q in Stalybridge
has the shortest name in Britain. The
Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn,
also in Stalybridge, has the longest.
I am the Only Running
Footman is the longest pub name in London.
See also
References
Notes
- Culture UK - Pub and Inn Signs
- Strange Names
- History of the Twelve Pins (brief). Retrieved on
2009-04-05.
- "The present sign is the innocuous replacement for one that
became the centre of a storm a dozen or so years ago. As readers
may remember, the original illustration was of a white couple
trying to scrub the blackness off a black child in a tub. It was
deemed by many to be in poor taste and potentially offensive, but
there was an outcry when it was removed following a protest by two
schoolgirls." [1]
- [2] Is Historic Black Boy Inn Racist?
- Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue, Penguin Books p169
Bibliography
- E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and
Fable. 1898
- The Dictionary of Pub Names, Leslie Dunkling and Gordon Wright,
Wordsworth Editions Ltd (2006), ISBN 1-84022-266-2
- Pub Names Of Britain, Leslie Dunkling, Orion (1994), ISBN
1-85797-342-9
- Welsh Pub Names, Myrddin ap Dafydd, Gwasg Carreg
Gwalch (1992), ISBN 0-86381-185-X
- Inns and Pubs of Nottinghamshire: The Stories Behind the
Names, Gordon Wright and Brian J. Curtis, Nottinghamshire
County Council (1995), ISBN 0-900943-81-5
External links
in Fleet Street
, London
, London
.
named after the poem by
Lady Carolina Naime.
, Gloucestershire is said to originate from the book
'Handley Cross or Mr Jorrocks's Hunt' by R S Surtees.
Inn
, Plymouth
): the Twelve
Pins
mountain range in the west of Ireland
.
: a range of hills, the Cheviot Hills
, of which the highest is locally called The Cheviot
.
.
The sign replaced with an image of a white rose; Diana was called
"England's Rose" in a popular song at the time by Elton John.
shows a Spitfire as the call became used by
some local wartime RAF pilots.
, Northumberland
, Devon
: after a failed project by Isambard Kingdom Brunel at that
place.
railway station, formerly the Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
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