Crown Review: The Second One, and It Is Still the Safest Name in Britain
Crown Review: The Second One, and It Is Still the Safest Name in Britain | It survived a beheading, a republic, and two Jacobite risings without a single brushstroke
Tag: pub review London
Manor Arms Review: The Manor Was a Unit of Everything and It Has Not Quite Gone
Manor Arms Review: The Manor Was a Unit of Everything and It Has Not Quite Gone | A court, a farm, a tax district and a police force in one – and manorial rights still exist
Queen’s Head Review: The Fourth One, and She Is Still Anonymous
Queen’s Head Review: The Fourth One, and She Is Still Anonymous | Nobody knows which queen is on the sign, and after six hundred articles we have stopped expecting to
Dundee Arms Review: The City That Ran on Jute, Jam and Journalism
Dundee Arms Review: The City That Ran on Jute, Jam and Journalism | Dundee had the three Js, and the jute was processed with whale oil, and the whale oil is why the city had a whaling fleet
Red Lion Review: The Second One, and the Colour Is the Message
Red Lion Review: The Second One, and the Colour Is the Message | Six hundred of them in England, and the animal tells you nothing while the colour tells you everything
Barley Mow Review: The Song Is a Drinking Test
Barley Mow Review: The Song Is a Drinking Test | It is a cumulative song, it gets faster, and the entire point is that you will eventually fail to say it
Commercial Tavern Review: The Interior Is a Collision
Commercial Tavern Review: The Interior Is a Collision | Nothing in the room matches anything else in the room, and the effect is one of the best in the district
Stag’s Head Review: The Antlers Are Grown and Thrown Away Every Year
Stag’s Head Review: The Antlers Are Grown and Thrown Away Every Year | A stag builds the fastest-growing tissue in the animal kingdom, carries it for a season, and drops it in a field
Shakespeares Head Review: He Is Missing a Finger
Shakespeares Head Review: He Is Missing a Finger | The statue of Shakespeare on the corner of the building has lost a hand, and the pub has never replaced it
Florist Arms Review: The Tulip Nearly Broke the Dutch Economy
Florist Arms Review: The Tulip Nearly Broke the Dutch Economy | A single bulb sold for the price of a house, the market collapsed in three months, and the beautiful ones were diseased
Star of Bethnal Green Review: The Stairs Are Why
Star of Bethnal Green Review: The Stairs Are Why | A hundred and seventy-three people died on a staircase four hundred metres from here in 1943, and no bomb fell
Salmon and Ball Review: Two Men Were Hanged Outside It
Salmon and Ball Review: Two Men Were Hanged Outside It | Weavers rioted over wage cuts, two of them were executed on a gallows built in front of this pub, and it took the crowd four hours
Prince Albert Review: He Was Loathed, and Then He Died
Prince Albert Review: He Was Loathed, and Then He Died | The most unpopular man in Britain became the most mourned, and the reversal took about a fortnight
Birdcage Review: They Kept Songbirds in Cages in Here
Birdcage Review: They Kept Songbirds in Cages in Here | Columbia Road had a bird market, working men bred singing birds in terraced houses, and the competitions were serious
The Monument Review: The Column Is a Scientific Instrument
The Monument Review: The Column Is a Scientific Instrument | Wren and Hooke built it hollow, with a laboratory in the basement, so they could use it as a telescope and a pendulum
Old King’s Head Review: They Kept the Sign Up in 1649
Old King’s Head Review: They Kept the Sign Up in 1649 | England executed the King, displayed his head to the crowd, and did not change a single pub sign
Marquis of Granby Review: The Bald General on Every Pub Sign
Marquis of Granby Review: The Bald General on Every Pub Sign | John Manners set up so many old soldiers as publicans that he has more pubs than anyone in England – and died penniless doing it
Blue Posts Review: There Were Four of Them and Nobody Agrees Why
Blue Posts Review: There Were Four of Them and Nobody Agrees Why | Several pubs in this district are called the Blue Posts, and the leading theory involves sedan chairs
Troy Bar Review: Troy Was Real and Everybody Said It Was Not
Troy Bar Review: Troy Was Real and Everybody Said It Was Not | An amateur dug it up in 1870, was proved right, and destroyed a great deal of it in the process
Perseverance Review: The Pub Names Were the Values
Perseverance Review: The Pub Names Were the Values | The Perseverance, the Industry, the Endeavour, the Good Intent – the Victorians named pubs after virtues and meant it
Oyster Shed Review: The Thames Was Paved With Them
Oyster Shed Review: The Thames Was Paved With Them | Billingsgate handled oysters by the hundred million. Then the beds collapsed and the food of the poor became a luxury.
Princess of Wales Review: The Title Is the Insulation
Princess of Wales Review: The Title Is the Insulation | Name yourself after the institution rather than the person and you can never be dated, embarrassed, or repainted
London Fields Review: They Were Fields, and They Were Nearly Not
London Fields Review: They Were Fields, and They Were Nearly Not | Cattle grazed there on the way to Smithfield, and the ground survived only because commoners fought for it
Queens Head Review: The Third One, and She Is Still Anonymous
Queens Head Review: The Third One, and She Is Still Anonymous | Nobody knows which queen is on the sign, and after five hundred articles we have stopped expecting to
Ledger Building Review: The Docks Employed Fifty Thousand Men and a Steel Box Ended It
Ledger Building Review: The Docks Employed Fifty Thousand Men and a Steel Box Ended It | The largest port on earth, and it was made unnecessary in about fifteen years by a container
Nellie Dean Review: The Song Was an American Hit and We Adopted It
Nellie Dean Review: The Song Was an American Hit and We Adopted It | Written in New York in 1905, and it became one of the great British pub singalongs, and almost nobody knows it is not ours
Counting House Review: The Third Bank We Have Drunk In
Counting House Review: The Third Bank We Have Drunk In | A domed banking hall on Cornhill, now a pub – and it is the third one in this survey, and there is a reason
Sugar Loaf Review: Sugar Came in a Cone and You Had to Break It
Sugar Loaf Review: Sugar Came in a Cone and You Had to Break It | Solid, conical, and hard enough to need special pliers – and the reason it was expensive is the part nobody puts on the sign
John Snow Review: The Brewery Workers Did Not Die
John Snow Review: The Brewery Workers Did Not Die | Six hundred people died round this corner in 1854. The men at the brewery drank beer instead of water, and every one of them lived.
Spread Eagle Review: Displayed Is a Heraldic Term
Spread Eagle Review: Displayed Is a Heraldic Term | It is not a species and not a description – it is a technical word for how the bird has been drawn