Prince of Wales Review: The Feathers Came Off a Blind King | Or so the story goes. The Black Prince supposedly took them from a dead Bohemian at Crecy. The evidence is thin and the story is unkillable.
The Warwick Castle Review: The Kingmaker’s Fortress on a Maida Vale Sign | A 4.3 pub from 1,199 reviews named the Warwick Castle, joining the Kingmaker’s earldom to the ancient fortress sign
White Horse Review: The Horse of Hanover, and a Hill in Oxfordshire | The white horse is the badge of the House of Hanover. It is also carved into a hillside and is three thousand years old.
Goat Tavern Review: The Goat Was Probably Real | Kensington High Street’s old pub is named after an animal that very likely stood outside it, which after two hundred articles is a relief
The Mitre Review: A Bishop’s Hat Over a Bar | The commonest ecclesiastical pub name in England, and a reminder that the Church used to own most of the pubs
Sun in Splendour Review: Three Suns Rose Before the Battle | In 1461 a terrified army saw three suns in the sky. An eighteen-year-old talked them into believing it was God. He became Edward IV.
Greyhound Review: The Fastest Dog, and the Sport That Ate It | A greyhound accelerates faster than a racehorse. Then somebody invented a mechanical hare and built an industry on it.
Pig and Whistle Review: A Merry Old Name of Uncertain Origin | A 4.3 pub from 340 reviews named the Pig and Whistle, one of the merriest and most debated of old English pub names
Westbourne Review: The River Is Under Your Feet | It is in a pipe. It runs over the platform at Sloane Square. It made the Serpentine. And nobody has seen it in two hundred years.
Sussex Arms Review: The Duke Who Married Illegally, Twice | Prince Augustus, Duke of Sussex, married for love in defiance of the Royal Marriages Act, and had both marriages annulled
Cock and Bottle Review: The Cock Is a Tap | It is not a bird. It is the spigot on a barrel, and the name means draught beer and bottled beer, which is the least romantic pub name in England
The Eagle Review: Pop Goes the Weasel Is About a Pub | The nursery rhyme is not nonsense. It is about pawning your coat to pay for drink at a pub called the Eagle.
Bayswater Arms Review: Named After a Horse’s Drinking Hole | Bayswater is probably ‘Bayard’s watering place’ – a spot on a stream where a horse could drink. There is now a pub, and 4,265 reviews.
Hop Poles Review: The Pole That Holds Up the Beer | A 4.1 pub from 2,057 reviews named Hop Poles, after the tall poles that support the hops which flavour all beer
Defectors Weld Review: Nobody Can Tell Us What the Name Means | Two thousand four hundred people have drunk in a pub called Defectors Weld and the Prat has been entirely unable to establish why
Princess Royal Review: A Title Only One Person Can Hold | It is not automatic and it is not inherited. There have only been seven, and the current one has to wait for the last one to die.
Earl of Lonsdale Review: The AA Is Yellow Because of This Man | Hugh Lowther owned seventeen yellow Rolls-Royces, gave boxing its oldest belt, founded the AA, and destroyed a 150,000-acre estate doing it
Shepherd and Flock Review: The Sheep Were Real and So Was the Bush | Shepherd’s Bush is named after a pasture where shepherds rested sheep on the walk to Smithfield market
The Albion Review: The Oldest Name This Island Has | Albion is older than Britain, older than England, and it means white – for the cliffs you see first from the sea
The Eagle Review: The King of Birds on a Notting Hill Sign | A 4.3 pub from 1,191 reviews named the Eagle, after the imperial king of birds, one of the grandest of all signs
Queens Tavern Review: A 3.9, and Why That Is Not the Insult It Looks | One hundred and fifty-one people, a below-average score, and a pub that has done nothing wrong
The Bull Westfield Review: A Sturdy Beast at the Shopping Centre | A 4.3 pub from 1,961 reviews named the Bull, the strong, ancient beast, handily placed by Westfield White City
The Elgin Review: Named After a Street, Named After a Man Who Took Things | Elgin Crescent is named for the Earl who removed the Parthenon marbles. The pub has a 4.4 and a very fine Victorian interior.
Earl of Lonsdale Review: The Yellow Earl on a Portobello Corner | A 3.9 Sam Smith’s pub from 1,627 reviews named for Hugh Lowther, the flamboyant Yellow Earl of the Lonsdale Belt
Ladbroke Arms Review: Notting Hill Is a Failed Racecourse | The famous crescents are the shape of a racetrack that opened in 1837, was defeated by clay, and closed in four years
The Albion Review: The Ancient Poetic Name for Britain Itself | A 4.2 pub from 476 reviews named the Albion, after the oldest and most poetic name for the island of Britain
The Hayden Review: A Smart Pub-With-Rooms Under a Family Name | A 4.6 pub and rooms from 1,275 reviews named the Hayden, a smart modern pub offering food, drink, and a bed
The Churchill Arms Review: London’s Flower-Covered Pub That Serves Thai | A 4.5 pub from 8,559 reviews on Kensington Church Street, buried in flowers since 1750, pouring Fuller’s and green curry
The Westbourne Review: A Notting Hill Local Named for Its Lost River | A 4.2 pub from 737 reviews named the Westbourne, after the buried river and the Westbourne Park district it names
The Stewart Arms Review: A Royal House’s Arms on a Value Local | A 4.2 pub from 296 reviews named the Stewart Arms, bearing the name of the great royal House of Stewart, at value prices
