Name That Pub (Bar)

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: p.j.
Date: 23 May 02 - 11:39 AM

Let's not forget Oakland's own "First and Last Chance", a favorite hangout of Jack London, built in 1880 from the timbers of a whaling ship. It's a tiny dive complete with tilting floor courtesy of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake...

pj

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 23 May 02 - 08:26 AM

well there's the bear & billet in chester, supposed to be the oldest pub in the city.

i don't think the etymological root of billet is soldiers quarters but the pole or stake that the animal was tethered to

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 22 May 02 - 05:04 PM

'Billet' may be derived from its military meaning of a place where soldiers were housed -- a destination. Hence a Crooked Billet was a place where soldiers were not supposed to be.

Most names supposedly derived from the corruption of aritocratic names and Latinesque sayings are probably bollox. Here's a great site on etymology -- but be warned, if you're anything like me you'll be lost in there for ages ... click

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: HuwG
Date: 22 May 02 - 03:08 PM

... and of course, that favourite British brew, the "Dog's Bollocks".

The only way to get over the embarrassment of having to bellow "Two Dog's Bollocks, please!" over a crowd of people hanging round a busy bar, is to then ask them, "Have you tried the food here?"

Incidentally, a pub name I remember from Tinsley, near Sheffield (UK), the "Pike and Heron". Local legend had it that it was so named in honour of someone's diastrous attempt to start a fish hatchery nearby.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: NightWing
Date: 21 May 02 - 03:35 PM

Oh, and there's a brewery in Fort Collins called "Doggie Style" *EG*

BB,
NightWing

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: NightWing
Date: 21 May 02 - 03:33 PM

Well, the States are not without a few good names. Here in Colorado we have the Flying Dog Brewery (conjures up some interesting images), Heavenly Daze Brewery (after an evening there, you're in one), Left Hand Brewery (a local native American leader's name was "Niwot" which means "left hand"; a number of places are named for him); Naked Aspen Brewing Company (*gasp* Naked TREES!? What IS the world coming to), the Smiling Moose Bar & Grill (don't ask me), Baked in Telluride (the last time I was in Telluride, I got baked), and the Giggling Grizzly (again, don't ask me).

BB,
NightWing

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Les from Hull
Date: 21 May 02 - 03:17 PM

Quite a few of the Hull pubs had alternative names. We have a Crown which is always called Red Hell, and another which is usually Milehouse. The Anchor was always 'Blue Heaven'. Recently there has been a trend to make these the real names of the pubs, 'Green Bricks' and 'Rayners' have been so renamed in recent years. I don't like 'em changing the names of pubs, but I particularly don't like 'em changing the offical name to the unofficial name.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST,Warsaw Ed
Date: 21 May 02 - 03:02 PM

The "Broken Jug" in Ballina,County Mayo Ireland

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 May 02 - 02:20 PM

The Man on the Moon, I thought it was actually over the city boundary. Never went in, it was certainly not "out of this world" - it had "no atmosphere"!
Looked clean and neat enough from the outside - in the 70's though.
Surprised no one did the joke about arson - set alight to the sattelite?
I'll get my coat.......

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: HuwG
Date: 21 May 02 - 08:48 AM

The "Corner Cupboard" in Glossop; stands on a corner and is not renowned for being spacious. They do have an excellent C+W band, "Dark Horses" there on Thursday nights.

If I am going to plug pubs in Glossop, then the place to go for music is "The Globe", usually referred to as "The Globule", recently taken over by Ron Brookes and Diane Virgo, who are booking various local and not-so-local bands and performers every weekend. Recent acts have included bAd Dog, Kyla Brox and Steve Washington, with backing from brothers Sam Lees and Joe Lees.

Many pubs in Glossop have names which refer to various titles of the Howard family e.g. "The Norfolk Arms". At one time there were two named "The Surrey Arms". For convenience, they were referred to as "The Little Surrey" and "The Big Surrey", or just "The Big 'S'"

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 21 May 02 - 07:43 AM

Mr Red-I can confirm the Push in Beverley is still the Push.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 21 May 02 - 07:36 AM

For Bill Tidy see here

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 21 May 02 - 07:20 AM

Bill Tidy has continued his pub cartoons in the CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) magazine, with the character "Kegbuster"

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 21 May 02 - 06:39 AM

Bill Tidy ( British Cartoonist) had a cartoon strip called the Cloggies and I recall some great pub names there too like... The Kings Thighs, The Pig and Ball Bearing and my fave The Fox and Pervert.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 20 May 02 - 10:20 PM

wot's a sind? is it an omen?

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 May 02 - 02:13 PM

Inn Beverly there is a pub in the square called the Punch or the Punchbowl - at least that was it's official name but they had new fangled doors in the 50's with a big sind to help the terminally kaylied. It said "PUSH" and that is what the pub became! No doubt the Hull fraternity can confirm and tell us it has been taken over and been given an oh-so-clever name like the "Nondescript and Firkin" or the "Bland and Who Cares?"

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Emma B
Date: 20 May 02 - 01:39 PM

Hello Happiness, Nearly bought the house in Norley across the road from the Tigers Head, fortunately it was too small to fit our four poster! otherwise we would have to renamed it 'The Tail' I lived for five years in the village before someone actually stopped to ask me "Where's the Tigers Head?" then ...I just couldn't do it! We also have a 'local' called The Hazel Pear, I've never seen that anywhere else,

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 20 May 02 - 11:48 AM

I remembered another one, in Lennoxtown, which the locals call "Campsie": "The Drookit Dug"

Drookit = Scots for "Drenched, Soaking" Dug = dog

Cheers

Steven

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 20 May 02 - 11:37 AM

there's a hostelry in a village near delamere, cheshire [maybe in norley] with an unusual name

i heard a story about a traveller looking for it and asked a local 'excuse me, where's the tigers head?'

quick as a flash the answer came back,

'four foot from his tail!'

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Pied Piper
Date: 20 May 02 - 11:27 AM

I understand ther was a Pub in Wigan called "Cunt and Trumpet". Cunt bieng an old English word for a sheeth (as in knife), hence its sexual associations.PP

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST,Declan
Date: 20 May 02 - 11:24 AM

There's a pub in Dubin called The Long Hall which I always thought was a good one.

One outside Dundalk called the "Blue Anchor" which has to be pronounced carefully, particularly in the local accent.

There's one in Howth outside Dublin called the Cock Tavern, which was previously called The Cock Inn, which gave rise to some "How far is the ..." jokes.

Also a pub in Co Kilkenny near some caves called the Cave Tavern - I suppose they thought it would be tempting fate to call it an Inn.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 20 May 02 - 11:06 AM

Hangs head in shame: forgot about the Muscular Arms....

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 20 May 02 - 09:57 AM

Talking about Glasgow pubs how could you forget Doog 'The Muscular Arms' in Exchange Square complete with 10ft high Popeye cartoons on the ootside and a life size dummy who used to sit at the end of the bar with his hands on his heid looking fair scunnert !! Then there's the pub in Coatbridge or Airdrie (whichever is the Orange area) where's there's a pub known as 'Lucky C*nt Murphy's' so named after the fact that Murphy ( a Catholic) announced he was marrying the daughter of a local Orange (Protestant) pub owner, the pub owner promptly had a heart attack and died at the shock of this leaving everything, including the pub in his will to his only daughter so the pub became owned by 'Lucky C*nt Murphy'

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 May 02 - 09:42 AM

Probably about 15 years ago, it became really popular to name bars with a name that was an "answer" to your wife's question, "Where were you?" without it sounding like a bar. All of these existed in central Ohio at one point or another:

WIFE: Where were you?
MAN: I stopped by The Library.
WIFE: You've been there all this time?
MAN: Naw, I went to Somewhere Else.
WIFE: Somewhere else? Where somewhere else?
MAN: Oh I was just Down The Road for awhile.
WIFE: Where down the road?
.....and here's my favorite.....
MAN: No Place In Particular.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 May 02 - 09:13 AM

I suspect the Boulogne Bouche is a canard.

I wonder if hanging out the Billet meant you could just get a drink, and a Bush meant they had additional faciities in line with bert's misinhgs?

It occurs to me that the idea of hanging out a bush as a sign has a modern day equivalent in Amsterdam, where a bit of shrubbery in the window of a coffee bar is an indication that it's a joint joint. (And they have some pretty weird and wonderful names as well - very like pub names, when you come down to it. "The Bulldog" could be either...)

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST
Date: 20 May 02 - 09:01 AM

Snuffy -- it was the one in West Heath I was thinking of.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 20 May 02 - 08:34 AM

I'm annoyed I got beaten to "The Goat and Compasses" (although I think the name predates the Temperance movement).
Pubs called "The Bull and Bush" often have their origins on inn sites which date back to Henry VIII, "Bull and Bush" being a corruption of "Boulogne Bouche", commemorating Henry's acquisition of the town and harbour(It paid to keep on the right side of Hal).

Walrus

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 20 May 02 - 08:16 AM

Some Glasgow pubs for the pot:

Babbity Bowster (recent pub/old name : literally "a kiss at the bolster" after a dance, and related to a song)
I always had a weakness for "The Office" - so named so that you could phone home, and not lie.
There was a pub in Springburn years ago called "Baldy Bayne's"

Also from Springburn- pubs that were obviously named to help you remember where you were in case of extreme confusion through drink - "The Terminus Bar", and the "Boundary Bar".

Cheers

Steven

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Bert
Date: 19 May 02 - 09:25 PM

Hey! I didn't know that McGraw! That must date back some years.

We were taught at school that the pub name "The Bush" originated from the practice of putting a branch or shrub on the top of the highest point of a building while it was being built. A practice which you still see today in places. They didn't mention the double entendre though.
I had to wait 'till I was grown enough to learn that.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 May 02 - 07:28 PM

Crooked Billet - they used to hang one outside an inn to show it was a placed you could get a drink , the same way they stick the red and white sign outside the barber shop (symbolic of a bandaged arm from thye s=days they doubled as surgeons, since they had the razors and scissors handy.) Quite why, I haven't a clue, but it was widespread enough that you get a fair number of Crooked Billets in all sorts of places. One in Walthamstow which has given its name to a little area, not just a pub.

Oldest pub in existence is said to be the Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham.

And maybe the fashion for jokey pub names for pubs in chains has peaked. There used to be a great pub in Epping near us called the George and Dragon, we used to have sessions there, and then it got gutted and reopened as the Forest and Firkin (or some Firkin name). But now it's been redesigned again, and it's gone back to being the George and Dragon. Still a horrible pub, but maybe in time it'll recover. At least now it's not so annoying as you walk past it to go somewhere else.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Snuffy
Date: 19 May 02 - 06:47 PM

Bullfrog, I presume you mean the one at West Heath. I've heard it was called the Man in the Moon because it was right on the edge of town:

Who the hell's going to come in here to drink?

The Man in the Moon?

Or was that the one at the very edge of Ipswich? (which also changed its name to Man ON the Moon, complete with N Armstrong on the sign).

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST,Bullfrog Jones (on the road)
Date: 19 May 02 - 06:35 PM

There used to be a pub in Birmingham called The Man In The Moon---until 1969 when it became The Man ON The Moon.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST,Cookie less Gareth
Date: 19 May 02 - 06:33 PM

Angie - Er? Aint the Broken Drun etc in Ankh-Morpork ? Or is you Ricewind in drag ???

Gareth

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST,Gareth
Date: 19 May 02 - 06:31 PM

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Angie
Date: 19 May 02 - 06:03 PM

The Broken Drum and the refurbished Mended Drum. angie xx

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: lady penelope
Date: 19 May 02 - 03:42 PM

The Ship down Wardour street (now no more ) used to have a fishing net attached to the ceiling with loads of hot cross buns in it. There were various stories as to why, but one of them was that a widow had left money to be used to put a bun in the net for each year her son didn't come back from the sea. ( I dunno why!)

Now I know what a crooked billet is and why we had a Mother red cap in Camden! Any day you learn something's not been entirely wasted.

TTFN M'Lady P.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 May 02 - 02:45 PM

There's a 'Quiet Woman' in Dorset, near Wareham too... And I was with the Mummers in 'The case has altered' only last Boxing Day.

Then there's the Widow's son in Poplar, famous for a whole heap of hot cross buns, or is it shillings and farthings?

The'Hung, drawn and quartered' in the old Christ's Hospital opposite Tower Hill, London, which I should imagine has interesting decor...

LTS

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: 53
Date: 19 May 02 - 01:20 PM

A Biker bar in Murrels Inlet S.C. call the Suck, Bang and Blow. What a nice name for a joint.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Shields Folk
Date: 19 May 02 - 11:55 AM

There is a pub in Northumberland called The Carts Bog Inn but it is known locally as 'The Clarty Cart'

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 May 02 - 11:48 AM

There is a "Pogue Mahone's" in Liverpool - when I told someone that they had a weekly session he was highly amused that they were allowed to call it that. Translation from the Gelic is apparently "Kiss my Arse"!

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Emma B
Date: 19 May 02 - 08:26 AM

Unfortunately the 'history' of names is not as interesting as the imagination (you know radio has better pictures!) The Blazing Donkey is just another name for braying and the Good Intent was the name of a schooner used for smuggling off the Kent coast (There is also a Good Intent just outside Chester named after a local stagecoach) Is there still a Mother Redcaps in Dublin - a great pub where I got totally smashed on Christmas Eve. 'Old Mother Redcap according to her tale/Lived twenty and a hundred years by drinking good ale/ It was her meat, her drink, her medicine besides/And if she still had drunk ale, she never would have died. - What a role-model!

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 May 02 - 06:52 AM

There's a Bear and Ragged Staff in Crayford, Kent (why? - it's a long way from Warwick), which some joker decided to rename the Orange Kipper. Local outcry, and "what have you done with the sign?" which was a beautiful piece of wrought iron. "I don't know," says the manager, but I don't think we put it on the skip." More outcry. Result. No kipper. Sign back. Name back.

Not so with the Hobgoblins. The Pie and Kilderkin at Forest Hill. The George Canning at Brixton (in small print, though). Or the Geese. The Goose and Granite - once the Plough at East Dulwich, with roads named after it. The Goose on the Green - once the Horse and Harrow at Catford - still proclaims that on the plasterwork.

McDonald's now has the Yorkshire Grey - landmark pub in Eltham (Elt-um), but it still says the name in small print.

When they built the bypass in Dover, they did for a few good names. The cause is altered - something political, I believe, possibly Civil War. And the Five Alls.

Penny

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 May 02 - 07:17 PM

Oh bugger. So many pubs named by Lady P that I have frequented..... and I remember them all now, but I'm pished, so there we go....

I did once find a pub called St Peter's finger after @Peter ad vincular', the dedication of the church......

got pishedthere tooo..

LTS

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Snuffy
Date: 18 May 02 - 05:19 PM

The Bear and Billet/Bear and Ragged Staff was the heraldic symbol of the Earls of Warwick, and there are several pubs with these names.

Most Dirty Ducks were originally the Black Swan, but there is a long tradition of belittling the (lack of) skill of the sign-painters. The Romper is usually called after a badly drawn Lion.

In the 70s/80s in Bury St Edmunds the Rose & Crown was known locally as the Butterfly and Dartboard, because that's what the sign looked like from a distance.

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Bert
Date: 18 May 02 - 05:01 PM

A billet is a log. It used to imply that the log will be cut into something useful, like a knee or brace for shipbuilding. Nowadays though it also means a log for the fire.

Specific engineering use also includes a chunk of raw steel from which a part will be machined.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 18 May 02 - 04:27 PM

Guest Nick: is that as in "Do drop in" ?,
Or a pointer to the final lines of a scurrilous verse on kissing, : "The morning dew may kiss the grass,
And you, my friend, may kiss my ..."

Anyone remember the whole thing ?

Nigel

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 18 May 02 - 03:44 PM

A cliche but.... The Dew Drop Inn - crops up all over the US

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: GUEST,Bullfrog Jones (on the road)
Date: 18 May 02 - 03:21 PM

A couple more corrupted names:The Goat and Compasses in Euston -- apparently from a phrase to appease the Temperance Movement (it's just down the road from the Temperance Hospital), 'God Encompasseth Us'. (Try saying that when you're pissed!) and, of course, The Elephant and Castle, from The Infanta of Castile.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: RolyH
Date: 18 May 02 - 02:22 PM

One of the longest names must be 'The Caister Men Never Turn Back'in Caister on the Norfolk(UK)cost named after the Caister lifeboat men.

Subject: RE: Name That Pub (Bar)
From: 53
Date: 18 May 02 - 02:19 PM

Beachwagon and Applebees.