Walrus and the Carpenter Review: They Eat All the Oysters
Walrus and the Carpenter Review: They Eat All the Oysters | Lewis Carroll wrote a poem in which two characters weep with sympathy for the creatures they are in the process of eating
Tag: pub review London
Camden Eye Review: The Eye Was on Every Shop in London
Camden Eye Review: The Eye Was on Every Shop in London | A watching eye was a stock sign, it meant somebody is looking, and it was aimed at thieves
Palm Tree Review: It Is the Last Building Standing and the Bombs Took Everything Else
Palm Tree Review: It Is the Last Building Standing and the Bombs Took Everything Else | A pub alone in a park, because the terraces around it were flattened and never rebuilt
Angel Review: The Angel Is on the Sign Because Nobody Could Read
Angel Review: The Angel Is on the Sign Because Nobody Could Read | A religious house sign, a Monopoly square, and one of the oldest pub names in England
Ship Review: The Sign That Meant You Could Get Home
Ship Review: The Sign That Meant You Could Get Home | A ship on a board, near a wharf, in a port city – and it is one of the commonest and most useful signs in England
Windmill Review: The Post Mill Was Turned by Hand
Windmill Review: The Post Mill Was Turned by Hand | The whole building rotated on a single oak post, and the miller pushed it round with a beam to face the wind
Birkbeck Review: He Taught Working Men Science at Night and It Frightened People
Birkbeck Review: He Taught Working Men Science at Night and It Frightened People | Free evening lectures for mechanics, and the argument against it was stated openly and it was correct
Marlborough Head Review: He Never Lost a Battle
Marlborough Head Review: He Never Lost a Battle | John Churchill won four of the greatest victories in British history, was accused of treason, and is Winston’s direct ancestor
Paradise by way of Kensal Green Review: The Line Is From a Poem
Paradise by way of Kensal Green Review: The Line Is From a Poem | Chesterton wrote about drunks lurching home past a cemetery. Somebody turned the last line into a bar with a 4.3.
Angel of Bow Review: The Matchgirls Struck Here and Their Jaws Were Rotting
Angel of Bow Review: The Matchgirls Struck Here and Their Jaws Were Rotting | Phosphorus necrosis, fourteen hundred women walking out, and they won in three weeks
Golden Fleece Review: England Was Built on Sheep
Golden Fleece Review: England Was Built on Sheep | The Lord Speaker still sits on a sack of wool, because wool was the entire economy and Parliament wanted nobody to forget it
Royal Exchange Review: Bad Money Drives Out Good
Royal Exchange Review: Bad Money Drives Out Good | Thomas Gresham built the Exchange, gave his name to a law about coinage, and put a giant grasshopper on the roof
Washington Review: He Refused the Crown, and That Is the Point
Washington Review: He Refused the Crown, and That Is the Point | He could have had it, everybody expected him to take it, and he handed the power back and went home
Glassblower Review: Glass Changed What Drinking Was
Glassblower Review: Glass Changed What Drinking Was | Before it, you could not see what you were drinking – and the moment you could, everything about wine changed
Rising Sun Review: A Pub Named After the Cheapest Sky in England
Rising Sun Review: A Pub Named After the Cheapest Sky in England | One of the most common pub names in the country, and a small lesson in why the sunrise was such a big deal to people with no clocks
Blue Posts Review: The Second One, and There Are More
Blue Posts Review: The Second One, and There Are More | Multiple pubs in one district with the same name, none of them related, and nobody has ever explained it
Abbey Tap Review: Stratford Langthorne Was Enormous and There Is Nothing Left
Abbey Tap Review: Stratford Langthorne Was Enormous and There Is Nothing Left | One of the largest abbeys in England, dissolved, quarried for stone, and it is under a road
Buxton Review: He Finished What Wilberforce Started and Nobody Remembers Him
Buxton Review: He Finished What Wilberforce Started and Nobody Remembers Him | Thomas Fowell Buxton took over the abolition campaign, got the Act through, and married into the Gurney bank
Bell Bush Lane Review: The Bell Was Rung and the Bush Was Hung
Bell Bush Lane Review: The Bell Was Rung and the Bush Was Hung | Two of the oldest signs in Europe, on one pub – and both of them were telling you something urgent
Lyric Review: A Lyric Is Something You Sing to a Lyre
Lyric Review: A Lyric Is Something You Sing to a Lyre | The word is Greek, it names an instrument, and it is the reason we call the words of a song the lyrics
Ganton Arms Review: 4.6, and the Arms Belong to Nobody
Ganton Arms Review: 4.6, and the Arms Belong to Nobody | An arms pub is flying a coat of arms, and this one is named after a street, which does not have one
Bow Bells Review: The Bells Are Not in Bow and a Cockney Cannot Hear Them
Bow Bells Review: The Bells Are Not in Bow and a Cockney Cannot Hear Them | They are in Cheapside, two and a half miles away, and the church they hang in is a different Bow entirely
Britannia Review: She Was Invented by the Romans to Show We Had Been Beaten
Britannia Review: She Was Invented by the Romans to Show We Had Been Beaten | The first images of Britannia are Roman coins showing a defeated province. We put her on our own money for three hundred years.
Golden Lion Review: The Colour Is the Whole Message
Golden Lion Review: The Colour Is the Whole Message | A lion is generic and tells you nothing – the colour tells you whose land you are standing on
Holly Tree Review: The Holly Has Prickly Leaves Only Where It Can Be Eaten
Holly Tree Review: The Holly Has Prickly Leaves Only Where It Can Be Eaten | Look up. The leaves at the top are smooth, and the plant is deciding, and it can change its mind
Crown Review: The Second One, and It Has Outlived Everything
Crown Review: The Second One, and It Has Outlived Everything | Nine monarchs, a republic, a beheading and a restoration – and the sign has never needed a single brushstroke
Camel and Artichoke Review: An Artichoke Is a Thistle You Eat Before It Flowers
Camel and Artichoke Review: An Artichoke Is a Thistle You Eat Before It Flowers | You are eating an unopened flower bud, and if you leave it three days it becomes a purple thistle
Albert Review: The Second Albert, and He Wanted No Statues
Albert Review: The Second Albert, and He Wanted No Statues | He said so more than once, it is on the record, and he is now among the most commemorated men in Britain
Green Man Review: He Is Carved in Churches and Nobody Knows Why
Green Man Review: He Is Carved in Churches and Nobody Knows Why | A face made of leaves, in cathedrals across Europe, in the roof bosses and the choir stalls – and no medieval source explains him
Duke of Sussex Review: He Married Twice and Neither Counted
Duke of Sussex Review: He Married Twice and Neither Counted | The Royal Marriages Act voided both, he was a serious abolitionist and reformer, and he is remembered for none of it