Contrived Pub names

Subject: Contrived Pub names
From: Betsy
Date: 02 May 07 - 06:00 AM

I was just sending a message re "Tap and Spile" reverting back to the Station.The Tap and Spile is a fairly good name ,but the worst I can remember was in Twickenham many years ago - changed names since I believe - called the Hedgehog and Stump.
Incidentally a Twickenham pub has also one my favourite pub names "The Cabbage Patch " (and I don't follow Rugby).
And , don't you just hate all that crap about Purveyors / Fine Ales etc especially when they only have bog-standard beer and lager.
One of our well known Folkies always hated the Pub sign "The New Inn" he used to go crackers when he saw that name .
What's your most disliked pub name ?

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 May 07 - 06:02 AM

The Sign outside a good old pub that really annoys me is 'MacDonalds' !!

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: greg stephens
Date: 02 May 07 - 06:07 AM

The changing of a perfectly good old pub name to the "Scruffy O'Hooligan" type of name used to annoy me, but I'm glad to see some are now reverting to their old names.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 May 07 - 07:00 AM

I feel that way about Wetherspoons.

Now Wetherspoons do great beers, they do fantastic food at sensible, family friendly prices, and they don't do loud shouty music often... but they're generic. You can go into a Wetherspoons in London and find exactly the same fayre as a Wetherspoons in Skegness.

Rarely now are the pubs being called by their proper names... the one nearest us is actually called 'The Millers Well' but is universally known as the Wetherspoons opposite the town hall. Then there's the big Wetherspoons in Stratford (E15), or the little one in Forest Gate. These are respectively, the Golden Globe or ?the Cutter (can't actually remember but it is some ship or other).

Everywhere you go now, you get huge companies taking over places and turning them into generic, cloned, identical places, where you are offered the same food, the same selection of beers and the same 'serve 'em quick and get 'em out' style of service. It's not just the pub names that are contrived (the 'Slug and [insert vegetable] chain springs to mind) but the whole 'friendly local' aspect that's as fake as the plastic beams and Chinese repro horse brasses.

LTS


Some of the contrived names are amusing - the Frog and Radiator is a jolly juxtoposition of the sublime and ridiculous, but others are just plain

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Bernard
Date: 02 May 07 - 07:43 AM

Occasionally names are changed to reflect colloquial usage...

A pub in Bolton, Lancs, had its name changed to 'Sally Up Steps' because that had been its local nickname for many years, due to the number of steps leading up to the front door. Sadly, it closed some years ago and is now a Chinese restaurant... I think it was originally the Stanley Arms.

Another Bolton pub (with a spectacular panoramic view) is Bob's Smithy, supposedly named after the blacksmith who spent more time in the pub than he did at work!

Possibly unique is the Spinner & Bergamot, Comberbach, Cheshire, which is named after after two famous race hourses owned by the local gentry of nearby Marbury Hall in the late 1700s.

They were very successful, and made a fortune for the Smith Barry family who also owned the Spinner Pub. It became the Spinner and Bergamot because they believed that the pub gave them good luck and fortune...!

Or so the story goes...

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Splott Man
Date: 02 May 07 - 07:48 AM

I like The Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower in Ashtead. Is it still there?

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 May 07 - 08:01 AM

There's a Faltering Fullback on the A40 in west London... never did work out why except it is a huge sports pub.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 May 07 - 08:06 AM

A number fell out.. that should be the A406, better known as the infamous North Circular!

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 02 May 07 - 08:12 AM

Some are contrived but acceptable. A number of years back, in Badford, near the university there opened a new pub. It was a building which hadn't previously been a pub. The new pub was named "Delius lived next door". It was in the old Victorian house which was next door to one where the composer, Frederick Delius once lived.

I always found the Scruffy Murphy's chain particularly racially offensive. If someone had opened a food outlet named Greasy Abdul's they would have been prosecuted for the name.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST,Elfcall
Date: 02 May 07 - 08:14 AM

The Faltering Fullback used to be called 'The Cock' and was a local landmark in Palmers Green because it has a bus garage behind it and buses would often terminate there - and have 'The Cock, Palmers Green' on their destination boards. It is at a major road junction.

I never liked the pub whatever it was called!!

Elfcall

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST,By eck
Date: 02 May 07 - 08:49 AM

The Commerical in Esholt (Yorkshire) was the Woolpack in Emmerdale, before they moved and built a set in THE grounds of Harewood house. It has now changed it's name to yes you've guessed ...... the Woolpack.

The Fleece in upper Eldwick was locally known as Dick Hudson's and it has now changed to that name

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 May 07 - 10:19 AM

The Lamorna Inn (Twas down in Albert Square) was a 'known ' Smugglers pub , and was always referred to as 'The Wink' .

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Mr Fox
Date: 02 May 07 - 10:52 AM

The Rat and Parrot has always annoyed me for some reason as does The Slug and Lettuce (though I suppose it tells you what your bar meal is going to be like) and contractions of original names like turning The Queen Victoria into Vicky's Bar.

There was a Frog and Radiator in Greenwich - on the corner of Trafalgar Road and Tunnel Avenue. It has now reverten to it's original name, The Ship and Billet.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: stallion
Date: 02 May 07 - 10:54 AM

Here in York we have a pub name changed to it's knickname The Unicorn Inn is now the Corner Pin It would be interesting to see if some of the other knicknames get adopted "The Spread Eagle" - "The Dead Beagle", The Brigadier Gerrard - The Belgrano. A recent quiz question in the local pub asked what one pub was called in 1992, we went through half a dozen names before making a selection, we wrong and we had not even considered the correct answer! Does anyone know if "The Labour In Vain" in Yarnfield Staffs is still open, it has always struck me as the strangest name for a pub.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Betsy
Date: 02 May 07 - 11:01 AM

These are all pretty good names with the exception of the Faltering Fullback and The Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower which don't easily fall off the tongue .
Spinner & Bergamot, doesn't fall easily off the tongue but it has genuine roots !!!!
Love 'Sally Up Steps'.
I agree wholeheartedly with Geoff the Duck, about Scruffy this and Dirty (or Durty) (or Dutty) that - all shitty contrived names.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Menno
Date: 02 May 07 - 11:03 AM

If ever I start an Irish pub, I shall call it "The Craic House".

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 02 May 07 - 11:15 AM

LtS

Good guesses at the JDW pub names but the Stratford one is The Goldengrove and the Forest Gate one is The Hudson Bay.

I think your guesses sum up Wetherspoons in general, so similar that they are not particularly memorable so tend to get referred to as The Wetherspoons and the names are forgotten

I'm not sure why I remember the Stratford one as I've only been there once about 10 years ago. Been to the FG one more often and probably remember the name as one of the regular friends I went with was called Hudson.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Y_Not
Date: 02 May 07 - 11:35 AM

Where I grew up the local pub was THE FARMERS ARMS and it was almost a tradition that as soon as the landlord replaced the "M" in ARMS the kids would nick it again.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Rog Peek
Date: 02 May 07 - 11:36 AM

Back in the sixties (the post Beaching era) in Malmesbury, Wilts they changed the name of 'The Station' to 'The Flying Monk' after Elmer the monk, who made himself a pair of wings and flew off the top of Malmesbury Abbey. I believe the first recorded instance of man flying. They say he flew quite a distance, mostly downwards, although he did land some distance away breaking both of his legs.
The pubs name was changed following a re-enactment of Elmers flight by the army, via a line stretched from the top of the Abbey to the ground to celebrate an anniversary of the original event.

The pub name was quite unique and sadly the pub has gone now, making way for a housing development.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Vixen
Date: 02 May 07 - 11:54 AM

Here on t'other side of the Pond we have very few interesting pub names, showing nowhere near the originality and charm of English pubs. The two exceptions that spring to mind are "No Place" and "The Village". I have always thought that the idea behind those two was to disguise where you had been and/or where you were going.

V

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 May 07 - 04:36 PM

I knew it was the Golden Grove... I just didn't spell it that way!

There is a pub in Lychett Minster, Dorset, with a name most people think is totally modern and silly - St Peter's Finger. It's actually older than the building which is at least 200 years old, and is a corruption of St Peter ad Vincula. It's known in the local area as 'Pete's Digit'.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 02 May 07 - 07:26 PM

Anybody know if the "Little Pub Company" is still running in the Midlands. Mad O'Rourke's Pie Factory at Tipton and others such sa the little Sausage Factory at Cradley Heath were well worth a visit for novelty value.Pub chain mottoes included
"The customer is always wrong" and "Drink harder and faster"
I recall once having Black Pudding Thermidor - described on the menu as "like lobster thermidor, but with black pudding".
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Splott Man
Date: 03 May 07 - 04:07 AM

The Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower's name certainly goes back to the 60s, thus predating the trend for silly contrived names. I don't know how much further back it goes though.

Didn't Mike Harding start this trend in his monologues in the early 70s, or was he just heading up something that was already happening? I remember the Pig and Ball Bearing in one of his pomes.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 May 07 - 04:23 AM

There's the Green Man and French Horn in St Martin's Lane, just off Trafalgar Square, London. Expensive but has proper beer, great food and a cute barman. No idea how it got it's name but it's been there for many many years.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Bugsy
Date: 03 May 07 - 04:43 AM

Here in Perth WA we have a few "English" & "Irish" pubs.

Moon & Sixpence
Elephant & Wheelbarrow
Slug & Hare
JB O'Reilly's
Durty Nelly's
Rosie O'Grady's

To name but a few


Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Mick Tems
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:20 AM

There's The Moon And Sixpence at Tintern, in the Wye Valley, and The Goose And Cuckoo about three miles from Llanover, Gwent, with a breathtaking view and a good reputation for real ale - both ancient inns with ancient exotic names. I must digress, however - at the beautiful Breton village of La Cheze ("ville fleurie") there's a little bar, standing opposite the river, which is called (translated from French): "It's Better To Drink Here Than Over There". Good thinking...

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:22 AM

Then of course there is what is reputed to be the oldest pub in the UK, 'Ye olde Trip to Jerusalem'... One wonders when it acquired the 'Ye Olde'...

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST,Bainbo at work
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:33 AM

I'm glad to say that - after that spasm a few years ago of renaming pubs, and fitting them all out from the smoked-glass-and-chrome catalogue - most of the ones near us have reverted to their original names. I say glad, because the new names included The Pink Domino; Porcupine Park (used to be the Queen Alexandra); and the Ginger Giraffe.

The annoying thing, though, is that with the return to the original names, there was a fortune spent making the pubs look like they always had done in the first place. Only this time round, it's all fake.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:36 AM

we have a "moon and sixpence "in whitby.its a wine bar! i like the "first in last out "in whitby. its a good name for a folk venue, dont you think?

          old salty X

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:40 AM

Mention of the French bar above reminded me of a bar in the Dordogne village of Allemans called L'Arsenic, though I don't know why.

My friend Pinky, who lives in Allemans, is prone to asking "Do you fancy one up the Arsenic?"

Nick

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Mick Tems
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:41 AM

Years ago The London Inn, Swansea, changed its name to The Swansea Jack, in memory of a dog who was not only a good swimmer but a good life-saver as well. As a founder member of that late lamented group, Swansea Jack, I heartily endorse improvements designed to remember the band's (and the dog's) name!

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Betsy
Date: 03 May 07 - 07:38 AM

I suppose there's only a couple of dozen cloned names (i.e.Scruffy , Durty etc ) and those terrible ones which Bainbo mentioned.
The Elephant & Wheelbarrow is plain silly and I suspected that there were more of them about - but - there appears not. Just unusal names with (usually)nice stories about their roots, so, I take their lead.........
There used to be in South Croydon(think it was South)when I worked their in the 60's, a pub with the name The Swan and Sugarloaf.
I'm sure it will have proper "roots" and I've always found it to be the type of name that the inventors of contrived names couldn't come up with. Does that make sense ?

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 May 07 - 02:58 PM

There's the 'Ship and Shovel' near Dagenham.... there but for a typographical error...

It's got a picture of a steam ship on it, so I suppose that is how it got the name.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 03 May 07 - 04:36 PM

The Swan and Sugarloaf in Croydon hsd a folk club. I remember singing there but can't remember when. Burl

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Peace
Date: 03 May 07 - 04:42 PM

"Purveyors"

The last purveyor of any ale is the sewage system.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: TheSnail
Date: 03 May 07 - 05:22 PM

At least Weatherspoons has a traditional sound to it. Some of the other pubcos are pretty cringeworthy. I keep seeing Innbusiness on pub signs and the Royal Oak in Lewes is run by a company called Pubsulike.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 May 07 - 09:39 PM

Thing is, most of those nasty pubcos are subsiduaries of the same big three companies.

The local one here is the East London Pub Company... dedicated to painting nice tiled buildings orange, and putting nasty boring signs up instead of proper pub signs.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Bugsy
Date: 04 May 07 - 03:26 AM

There's "Our Mutual Friend" in Stevenage. It's a new-ish pub and was named after the original "Our Mutual Friend" was demolished in the '60's. That one had been there for well over a century. As Charles Dickens used to stay in Stevenage and wrote some of his novels there (reputedly) I wonder, which came first?
The Book or the Pub??

Cheers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: The DeanMeister
Date: 04 May 07 - 05:14 AM

I always liked "The Packet Inn" on the banks of the Chesterfield canal in Misterton.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Dick The Box
Date: 04 May 07 - 08:52 AM

A friend in Abbots Bromley referred in passing to "The Jewish Pub". When I asked which one it was I was told it was the Coach & Horses, or the Kosher Horses as they pronounce it......

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 May 07 - 11:15 AM

No one has mentioned the Firkin chain in the UK. They started off with the Goose and Firkin, then added more pubs to the chain. They all have 'and Firkin' in the name but the later additions to the chain started to get a bit contrived. I can understand the Friar and Firkin, near an old abbey; the Flintlock was a bit less easy to understand, but I passed one today in Hornchurch - the Flatling and Firkin... what the hell is that about?

I recall with longing and much regret, the passing of the Phantom and Firkin, in Plaistow, and their house beer, 'Spook'. My kidneys do not share the sentiment.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 04 May 07 - 11:30 AM

perhaps the Fatling and Firkin?

Hornchurch was a centre for leather trade and nearby Romford had a large cattle market well into the last century.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 May 07 - 11:35 AM

That's more likely, but it's still contrived and not at all obvious to those who know nothing about young cows being fattened for slaughter...

I was driving past and trying not to knock little old ladies over so I didn't see the name properly.

Ordinarily I wouldn't have bothered avoiding the little old ladies but your mum was with me in the car so I thought I'd better be sensible.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 04 May 07 - 12:22 PM

I would like to humbly offer my suggestion for a colorful pub name..how about "The Merkin and Firkin"?

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST,Frug
Date: 04 May 07 - 03:00 PM

Geoff the Duck.........yes the Pie Factory is still going in Tipton and now boasts on its menu Chicken Balti Pie

Frank

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Bainbo
Date: 04 May 07 - 03:30 PM

Liz - re the Firkin chain

The one in Newcastle - fornerly the Barley Mow - was called the Fog & Firkin. It overlooked the Tyne. Fog ... Tyne ... d'ye see? A vaguely folky link.

Anyway, it is no more. It's now called Stereo.

(Links are to reviews from The Burglar's Dog, a hugeley opinionated and entertaining site.)

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: emjay
Date: 04 May 07 - 04:24 PM

Okay, not what you'd call a pub, just an "out the road" bar, but owner called it the Pole Lock Farm. His name was Ski Rebishke. Later he added a few hotel rooms above and called that the Hill Ten. Closed now and owner gone.
And there was a restaurant and bar a few miles away called Nobody's Inn. Name has been changed to something unremarkable. They made a lot of different plays on the name Nobody's. Can't remember anything special right now, but the food was pretty good.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 04 May 07 - 10:34 PM

In Bournemouth two adjacent pubs were knocked into one and renamed "The Goat and Compasses". Wadworths, the brewers, were trying to get away from the old names, the Pembroke Arms aand the Pembroke Shades, which had become synominous with the drug-taking community.
The name was the winner in a competition for the brewery's workers.

In Wiltshire, near Melksham, is "The Tipsy Toad".

Colyn.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 May 07 - 01:31 AM

Ah goats... near my office is a pub called the 'Goat and Boots'. Absolutely no idea why, there were no goat pens nearby, neither were the boots made from goats... it's a 'city' pub - no beer, expensive lagers, cheap shots and no garden.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Mikefule
Date: 05 May 07 - 03:18 AM

Presumably "Moon and Sixpence" is something to do with the full moon looking like a sixpence held at about arm's length. You know: they're both round and silver and, um... well that's it really.

Somewhere (Grantham?) I've see a Dew Drop Inn.

In Long Eaton (and no doubt other places near canals) there is the mildly amusingly named Barge Inn.

In Grantham there is a "Muddle Go Nowhere" which sounds like it might be a local expression, although I don't know.

I dislike it when a traditional nick name is officially adopted by the pub. Contracting a name - "Queen Victoria" becomes "The Queen Vic" or "Vicky's" - is even worse.