Name That Pub (Bar)

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: gnomad
Date: 18 May 02 - 02:08 PM

Whitby boasts another First in Last out, also the delightfully named Bottom House.

Lincoln had (and may still have) The Struggler, a memory from the days of public hangings.

E.Yorkshire in general has a number of Crooked Billets, never struck me as unusual before, but I guess you dont question what you grew up with.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Emma B
Date: 18 May 02 - 02:02 PM

Sdaly missed - Tommy Ducks, Manchester. This was the Prince's Tavern when it opened in 1867 the name of the licensee being Thomas Duckworth. He asked for his name to be added to the sign but the sign-writer miscalculated the space and there was only room for one more letter after Duck. I don't know when the name was made official but it was a much loved watering hole for workers at lunchtime. I wonder what happened to all those knickers? There is a Headless Woman not far from here also known as the Quiet Woman for obvious reasons and the pubs called after the heraldic arms of the Stanley family i.e. The Eagle and Child are more colloquially known as the Bird and Bastard I could go on .............

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: allanwill
Date: 18 May 02 - 02:00 PM

Ref. Brakn's post, there are anumber of pubs in Oz called The Rose, Shamrock and Thistle, although they are more commonly referred to as The Three Weeds.

Allan

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 18 May 02 - 01:03 PM

There's a "Big Peckers" in Ocean City, Maryland (USA). They use a rooster with a big beak as their emblem. After seeing all the "Hooters" spread around the USA (using owls with huge breast-shaped eyes as their emblem), I suppose it only fair that the other side get some play (so to speak).

I wish USA pub names were on average as interesting as their British/European cousins...alas, they mostly seem to be body part jokes.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Mr Red
Date: 18 May 02 - 12:09 PM

The Virgin Tavern in Worcester
I thought this would have been a modern relaxation of the nether words but when I went looking for historical evidence there was a Virgin Tavern in the Victorian era - they obviously were not all as prudish as their PR would suggest. The building could be victorian but not earlier even if there were a pub before the current bricks & mortar.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 18 May 02 - 11:04 AM

Yes, snuffy, The Air Baloon is still there: as is the Cow & Snuffers in Llandaff North
My local "Firkin" pub is renamed from "The Queen's Vaults" (downstairs of what was "The Queen's Hotel") and is now the "Fly Half and Firkin" aptly named (from the rugby position) as it is directly opposite the Millennium Stadium.
One pub name mentioned above "The Case Has Altered" was IIRC a corruption of La Casa Salter??.
And although "The Silent Woman" in Oxfordshire is no more, one can still be found in Huddersfield.
One interesting point is where "Pub Signs" hang out from the pub walls, allowing different depictions on either side.
It is not uncommon for pubs called "The Plough" to show an agricultural implement on one side, and the constellation (a.k.a. Ursa Major) on the other.
The Bulldog" in Oxford shows a canine on one side, and a City gent on the other.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST
Date: 18 May 02 - 09:32 AM

There's one near us called 'The Red Lion'

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST
Date: 18 May 02 - 09:22 AM

The Druids Arms in Brighton is a fav of mine...

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Gareth
Date: 18 May 02 - 09:07 AM

Snuffy - I think you are right, I shall have to check next time I'am dodging the tax on the bridge

Crooked Billet = Bent or curved piece of Wood.

Must check on the Cow etc.

Gareth

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 18 May 02 - 08:55 AM

There are several philanthropic 'Live & Let Live' boozers, Stoke St Michael (now a restaurant) and Ipswich, to my knowledge.

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Morticia
Date: 18 May 02 - 08:46 AM

There is still a Crooked Billet just outside Egham,Penny.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 18 May 02 - 07:00 AM

I like The Coal Porter triple pun used by the jazz/folk pub/restaurant in the Portebella area of Dublin.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: lady penelope
Date: 18 May 02 - 06:48 AM

The First In Last Out in Hastings. The Old Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street ( London ), the The Punch ( also in Fleet street, as in Punch and Judy ). I don't know why this tickles me so much but there are many pubs in Britain called the Hope and Anchor. But there is a tiny pub near where I live called the Anchor and Hope.

There was a pub in Pendeen ( Cornwall ) called The Radjel which is apparently cornish for fox. It was where the really old locals drank and it would all go quiet when you walked in ( like in a western ) and eventually the barman would say something like "You'll be wanting the North Star Inn, it's just up the road a bit". And it would stay quiet till you left. Oooh!

The Saracen's Head in Glasgow. Nobody has yet told me why there should be a saracens head ( or the "Sarry Heed" in local parlance ) in Glasgow.

The House They Left Behind, literally the last of the old houses in the middle of new estates at Wapping ( London) hence the name. Also in Wapping The Prospect of Whitby, named after the ship that used to birth there ( the pub is on the river front ).

There used to be a pub called The Crooked Billet which they pulled down about 5-6 years ago. I still don't know what a crooked billet is ( bent bed?). Though the pub is mentioned in many local histories no one explains the name.

I do hate it when they change the name of old pubs, especially when they are local land marks. There was a pub in Camden called the Old Mother Red Cap, now it's called The End Of The World which is a land mark pub in south London. Also in Camden was the Black Castle. That's been changed about four times now. In Kentish town there was a row because they wanted to rename The Assembly Room, another land mark pub. They changed the Tally Ho to Hudsons when Open House ( a vile chain ) took it over, but a succesfull campaign once Open House sold it off, got the original name reinstated. The same with The Nags Head in Holloway. That was on the Bus time tables and they wanted to change it!

Cor, I'm in total rant mode today....

TTFN M'Lady P.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Snuffy
Date: 18 May 02 - 06:26 AM

Isn't it the Air Balloon at Birdlip, Gareth? And nearer to home, is the Cow and Snuffers still there (Llandaff? Radyr?)

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: gnu
Date: 18 May 02 - 05:59 AM

There's pub in the basement of a gas station/convenience store near me called Rock Bottom.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: cetmst
Date: 18 May 02 - 05:54 AM

Liz, the crime novelist is Martha Grimes, an American who lives in Maryland and writes a series of mysteries with a large permanent cast. Titles which she says are authentic pub names include The Man With a Load of Mischief, The Old Fox Deceived, The Anodyne Necklace, The Dirty Duck, Jerusalem Inn, Help the Poor Struggler, The Deer Leap, I Am the Only Running Footman, The Five Bells and Bladebone, The Old Silent, The Old Contemptibles, The End of the Pier, The Horse You Came In On (the Baltimore one), Rainbow's End (?American), Hotel Paradise (?New Mexico), The Case Has Altered, The Stargazey, Biting the Moon (?) , The Lamora Wink. My favorite which she has not yet written about is The Silent Woman with the logo of a headless maiden.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Brakn
Date: 18 May 02 - 05:34 AM

There used to be a pub in Altrincham called the Rose and Shamrock. It was knocked down in the 50s. In Birkenhead there is a pub of the same name.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Gareth
Date: 18 May 02 - 04:40 AM

Mort - The Frog and Nightgown was invented by that great british comic Tony Hancock !

Commic names are all very well but I think there is more in historical names, and finding out why.

For that I give you the "Blazing Donkey" at Margate (Kent), or the "Flying Machine" at Birdlip (Glous'), or even better the "Good Intent" at Gillingham (Kent).

Incidently the "Long Reach" at Whitstable (Kent) was built on the site of the Town Gallows/Gibbet. - But I don't think that apt name was what the Brewery management intended.

Gareth

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Bert
Date: 18 May 02 - 04:38 AM

"The Bush, Blackbird and Thrush", in East Peckham, Kent

And "The Rorty Crankle" also in Kent.

One of my personal favourites though was "The Princess Alice" in Forest Gate. It was just a dirty great hole in the ground the whole time I lived there. It had been bombed during the war but busses still stopped at "The Princess Alice"

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Morticia
Date: 18 May 02 - 04:31 AM

I know of a "Chocolate Cat" just outside Devizes but my favourite has always been "The Frog and Nightgown."

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 May 02 - 03:55 AM

The trouble with that is, there are so many chains now with 'amusing' names - the Slug and Lettuce chain, whose premises include the 'Cauliflower and catterpillar' all play on the vegetable/salad + undesirable invertebrae/larvae/insect theme. Then there is the Firkin chain, where there was originally only one that didn't have an alliterative label (the Goose and Firkin), making for some quite desperate names like 'Flounder and Firkin', Friar and Firkin', Phoenix and Firkin (or should that one have been Phoenix and Phirkin?), or 'Flintlock and Firkin'.

Having said that, I rather like the fact that there were two pubs in London called 'I am the only Running Footman'... And I like the imagery of 'the Green Man and French Horn' - though why a French Horn I really don't know....

There was an author of crime novels, whose name totally escapes me, who wrote a whole series of whodunnits with real pub names as the titles. Hence, there is a book 'I am the only Running Footman', 'The Old House at Home', something about a maul and a shoulderblade and my favourite 'The horse you rode in on' which I was given to understand was a bar in Baltimore, USA.

Wish I could remember what that one about the shoulderblade is.... I've even been in the damn pub!

LTS

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: richlmo
Date: 17 May 02 - 09:23 PM

Wasn't a question , I know.

Subject: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: richlmo
Date: 17 May 02 - 09:21 PM

The thread about Favorite Town names was fun. How about the favorite name for a Pub/Bar? It would be hard to start naming Pubs/Bars without thinking of resturants, so let's make this a two part question.