An easy one: what links Jack Straw’s Castle, The Labouring Boys and The Jolly Taxpayer? No, not the parliamentary expenses scandal of yesteryear, but the weird and whimsical world of British pub names.
It was in 1393 that Richard II ordered brewers to announce their beery business by a prominent sign. Colourful names quickly abounded, invented by publicans and patrons alike. The intervening six centuries have given ample scope for praise and play.
The commonest names across the UK’s 50,000 or so pubs gesture to royal heraldry: The Red Lion, Crown, Royal Oak and White Hart make up the top four; Rose and Crown, Queen’s Head and King’s Arms come close behind. Most monarchs win a mention somewhere, although King Edward VIII is remembered only in The Abdication (Arnold, Notts).
Military conquests find widespread coverage, most provocatively by the Turk’s, Saracen’s or Black(a)moor’s Head. Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (Nottingham) claims to have been the rallying point for the Third Crusade. But many an eponymous general, admiral or battle now falls flat with the average pubgoer. Do drinkers in The Antigallican (Charlton) still seethe with suspicion?
Traditional trades and livery companies are commemorated everywhere, with The Three Horseshoes (farriers), Masons Arms and Carpenters Arms leading the field. Mayfair’s I Am The Only Running Footman preserves that livelihood’s last dash. While hunting, sporting, agricultural and locomotion are ubiquitous themes, literary names are scarcer. The Rubaiyat in Glasgow closed years ago, but they’re still serving at The Dr Syntax Inn (Stocksfield), The Case Is Altered (Bentley, Suffolk), The Barnaby Rudge (Tebay) and The Hobbit (Southampton).
As a rule, pub names should never change — but the occasional tweak is forgiveable. Northfield’s Man In the Moon became, in 1969, the Man On The Moon; and the Bird In The Hand (Witney) became the Baby in the Hand after an emergency delivery in the car park.
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