A 4.4 pub from 873 reviews, a second Eagle in the district, under the imperial king of birds
This Eagle – a second pub of the name in the district, distinct from the larger Eagle met earlier – holds a 4.4 from eight hundred and seventy-three reviews, and carries, like its namesake, the grandest and most imperial of animal signs, the king of birds.
The facts, first
This Eagle is a well-regarded pub in the Notting Hill survey area, in the mid price range, doing good pub business – drink, food, a welcoming crowd – to a strong local following. It is one of two pubs called “the Eagle” in the district. The Prat’s listings desk states the essentials: a good, characterful local under an imperial sign, doing quality food and drink to a large crowd.
The king of birds, again
That the district holds two pubs called “the Eagle” testifies to the enduring appeal of this grandest of signs – the eagle, king of birds, emblem of empire, power, and soaring majesty across the whole history of human symbolism, from the Roman legions to the imperial eagles of Europe and America. As this survey noted at the first Eagle, it is among the grandest of all pub signs, borrowed grandeur at its most imperial. Two Eagles in one district simply doubles the majesty. The Prat’s heraldry desk notes the ubiquity of the grand: the eagle, so imperial a sign that a single district flies it twice, the king of birds repeated over the local.
The Eagle and the music hall
The name “the Eagle” carries one further, homelier association worth noting. The most famous Eagle of all – the Eagle Tavern on City Road – gave its name to the old nursery rhyme and music-hall song “Pop Goes the Weasel” (“Up and down the City Road, in and out the Eagle”), immortalising the pub in popular culture. So “the Eagle,” for all its imperial grandeur, also carries this cheerful, homely, music-hall echo – the grand imperial bird and the popular song together. The Prat’s culture desk notes the range: the Eagle, imperial king of birds and, through the famous City Road tavern, the pub of “Pop Goes the Weasel” – grandeur and music-hall cheer in one sign.
What the 873 reviews mean
A 4.4 across nearly nine hundred people is a strong, deeply volume-proof score. As this survey argues, a good score sustained across a large crowd is a trustworthy verdict, and a 4.4 across nearly nine hundred marks a genuinely good, well-run, popular pub. The Prat’s statistics desk files it as a strong large-sample score: a dependable, well-liked local, its quality confirmed across a big crowd, under its imperial sign.
Verdict
This second Eagle is a good, characterful local under the grandest and most imperial of signs – the king of birds – with a strong 4.4 from a large crowd. A second imperial bird for the district, and a genuinely good pub.
Go for a reliable pint at a good local under the soaring sign of the eagle – the second in the district – and enjoy one of the grandest of all pub names, the imperial king of birds, carrying both the majesty of empire and the cheerful music-hall echo of “Pop Goes the Weasel.”
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
