Intriguing pub names

Duck59

Duck59

Legendary Member
Joined
23 Apr 2015
Local time
7:04 PM
Messages
3,149
Location
Fife, Scotland
Website
duckholiday.com
As anyone with the willpower to read any of my posts will realise, I enjoy a pint of decent ale from time to time. I was thinking about pub names the other day and trying to recall some of the stranger ones.

I'm talking about old names, not the type of 'Stockbroker and Wildebeest' nonsense that springs up nowadays. I recall, for example, a pub in Oxford called the Goat & Compasses. There is a suggestion that it might be something to do with the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers, which displayed three goats' heads on its coat of arms. Coincidentally, there used to be a pub in Newcastle called The Cordwainers Arms.

Another one you see now and then around the UK is the Wig & Pen. There are also a few called the Swan With Two Necks, which I believe is a corruption of "nicks", whereby swans' bills were notched for identification.

There is a pub on Lochend Road in Edinburgh called The Loch Inn, which has a nice ambiguity about it.

Does anyone have any good names they would like to divulge?
 
Interesting especially for history buffs ..

However, in Spain and Itay or France, Restaurants normally of this calibur are never in English .. However, there are uncountable Restaurants that have a name connected with "heraldic crests" or historical symbolism which is displayed at the entrance and in the interiors ..

Relais & Chateaux Hotel Network, The Parador Hotel Network & The Portuguese Pousada Network, are examples of such historical naming and crests or symbolism used for centuries and are derived from the historical buildings / monasteries / castles / palaces that have been converted into restaurants with boutique hotels and spas ..

Many bars or taverns in Spain date back to the early 1700s and 1800s
and are still functioning as bars / taverns with small restaurants that fit this category ..

Have a nice weekend ..
 
Last edited:
This one isn't a Pub but a restaurant and bar near here called: Who'd A Thought It? Its quite a quirky place and has rather kinky bedrooms!
 
And again (not a Pub) but Jamie Oliver's travelling caravan (which did have beer on board) and featured in his TV show. I still wonder how he got away with that one: "The Cock in Cider".
 
Barcelona Bars With Odd Names:

1) Betty Ford .. ( Nothing to do with the former 1st Lady of the States ) however, it is chock full of 1950s Route 66 memorablia & it specialises in international whiskies ..
2) Ice Barcelona ( it is 5 degrees centigrade ) so one must dress accordingly .. Extraordinarily amazing experience for Nordic Cocktails ..
3) Kahala ( Hawaiian Cocktail Bar ) specialising in Volcanic Cocktails .. Quite impressive ..
4) The Forest of Fairies ( El Bos de Les Fades ) which is a Bar & tiny Bistro, and their specialty is a "Fakir" which is a grouping of nails similar to a grill brought to your table to "grill" your meat or fish on a bed of extremely hot nails .. It is quite extraordinary ..
 
I had to look this up as I couldn't quite remember the name - there is a Pub in Stalybridge (Cheshire) which claims to have the longest Pub name: The Old Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn. Coincidentally (perhaps?) Stalybridge also has the shortest Pub name 'Q'.
 
Decades ago, my husband and I went to Cornwall, as we had a British Colleague who was from this región. She was an Expatriate from Philack, Cornwall .. She took us to an amazing historical Inn for lunch called:

" The Bucket of Blood " .. The historical influence of the name hails from the original landlord & restaurateur of the restaurant. One day he went to fetch some well wáter, and in the process, he pulled up a bucket of blood .. There was a crime committed obviously on the peripheries of the actual restaurant location. Thus, he named the Inn The Bucket of Blood and the art on the Sign, is of a man with a bucket of blood being drawn from a well ..

Interesting !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom