Smith’s Bar Review: The Commonest Name in England, Over a Cocktail Bar

A 4.4 cocktail bar from 160 reviews named Smith’s, after the most common of all English surnames and the ancient trade of the smith

Smith’s Bar holds a 4.4 from one hundred and sixty reviews, and carries the most common and quintessentially English of all surnames – “Smith” – a name that reaches back to the ancient and honourable trade of the smith, the worker of metal at the forge.

The facts, first

Smith’s Bar is a cocktail bar in the survey area, in the accessible-to-upper price range, doing cocktails and drinks to a good crowd. The Prat’s listings desk states the essentials: a characterful cocktail bar under the commonest of English names, doing cocktails to a good crowd.

The commonest name, the ancient trade

“Smith” is the most common surname in England, and one of the most honourable in origin – for it comes from the smith, the worker of metal, the blacksmith at his forge, one of the most essential and respected craftsmen of every village and town. The word “smith” (from an Old English root meaning to strike or work) named the maker of everything from horseshoes to swords to ploughs; so ubiquitous and essential was the trade that “Smith” became the commonest of all English surnames. To name a bar “Smith’s” is to reach for this warm, common, honest, deeply English resonance – the possessive proprietor-name at its most quintessentially English. The Prat’s naming desk notes the pedigree: “Smith,” the commonest English surname and the name of the ancient essential trade of the forge, warm, honest, and quintessentially English.

The personal name

“Smith’s,” in the possessive, places the bar in the warm proprietor-name tradition this survey has traced throughout (Humphrey’s, Angie’s, Old Mary’s) – the bar named for a person, promising the character and welcome of a genuine host. That the person is “Smith,” the everyman name of England, gives it a pleasing, democratic, unpretentious warmth – not a grand name but the commonest and most honest, the everyman’s bar. The Prat’s naming desk notes the democratic warmth: “Smith’s,” the everyman name of England in the warm possessive, unpretentious and honest, the everyman’s bar.

What the 160 reviews mean

A 4.4 across one hundred and sixty people is a good, solid score on a fair sample. As this survey has argued throughout, a score gains reliability with the size of the crowd behind it: one hundred and sixty is a fair and reasonably trustworthy sample – not the rock-solid certainty of the thousand-review giants, but enough to mark a genuinely good, well-liked bar with reasonable confidence. The Prat’s statistics desk files it as a good score on a fair sample: a well-liked cocktail bar, its quality confirmed with reasonable confidence.

Verdict

Smith’s Bar is a good, characterful cocktail bar under the commonest and most quintessentially English of names – the everyman surname of the ancient forge – with a good 4.4 from a fair sample. Honest of name, and a good bar.

Go for cocktails at a characterful bar under the most English of all names, and enjoy the warm, honest, everyman resonance – Smith’s, the commonest surname in England and the name of the ancient trade of the forge, the everyman’s bar in fashionable Notting Hill.

Alan Nafzger

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]