Grafton Review: The Dukes of Grafton Are the Fitzroys and It Is the Same Bastard | Charles II acknowledged fourteen illegitimate children, gave them dukedoms, and several are still in the House of Lords
Rising Sun Review: Franklin Watched the Chair and Could Not Tell If It Was Rising or Setting | A carved sun on the back of a chair, and the oldest question in politics, and he waited four months to answer it
Flying Horse Review: Pegasus Came Out of a Severed Neck | He sprang from the blood of the Gorgon when Perseus cut her head off, and he made a spring with his hoof
Wapping Review: The Print Dispute Was the End of an Industry and It Was Brutal | Six thousand people sacked overnight, a year on the picket line, and the whole trade was gone within a decade
Wellington Review: He Left the Shutters Up for Twenty Years | A mob broke his windows, he fitted iron ones, and then he never took them down – and that is where the nickname comes from
Queen Charlotte Review: She Brought the Christmas Tree Fifty Years Before Albert | The twenty-sixth woman in this survey, and she has a hospital, a flower and a district, and nobody knows a thing about her
One Tun Review: A Tun Is Two Hundred and Fifty Gallons and It Is Why a Ship Has Tonnage | The cask was the standard unit, ships were measured by how many they could carry, and that is where the tonne comes from
Northumberland Review: The Percys Rebelled Against Almost Everybody | They made Henry IV king and then tried to remove him, and Hotspur was killed doing it
TCR Bar Review: A Pub Named After an Abbreviation | Tottenham Court Road is too long to say, so the pub has become three letters – the ultimate surrender to the way people actually talk
Half Moon Review: The Cheap Room Wins Again and It Always Does | A converted chapel, under a tenner, and in eight postcodes the cheap venues out-rate the expensive ones every time
Well and Bucket Review: The Victorian Tiles Survived Because Somebody Boarded Over Them | A wall of nineteenth-century tilework, hidden for decades behind plasterboard, and that is the only reason it is here
Hungerford Review: The Bridge Was Sold and Shipped to Bristol | Brunel built a suspension bridge at Hungerford, they demolished it, and the chains are holding up Clifton
Crown Review: It Is the Safest Pub Name in Britain and That Is Why | It survived the Reformation, a civil war, a beheading, a republic and two Jacobite risings without a single brushstroke
Horn of Plenty Review: The Cornucopia Is a Broken-Off Goat’s Horn | Zeus was suckled by a goat, snapped off her horn by accident, and compensated her with infinite abundance
Dockers Inn Review: They Stood at the Gate and a Man Pointed at Them | Casual labour, the call-on, and one of the most humiliating employment systems this country has operated
Prince Regent Review: He Was the Most Ridiculed Man in England and He Was Right About Buildings | Twenty stone, drawn by Gillray as a bloated glutton, and he gave London Regent Street and Brighton Pavilion
Greenwich Pensioner Review: The Navy Looked After Its Wounded and Nobody Else Did | A hospital for disabled sailors, funded by a levy on every seaman’s wages, and it was the finest building any of them ever saw
George Review: Six Kings, a Turkish Saint, and Nobody Knows Which One | The commonest royal name in Britain, a patron saint who never came here, and a dragon added a thousand years late
Museum Tavern Review: Where Marx Drank While Writing Das Kapital | Directly opposite the British Museum, the pub where Karl Marx recovered from a day denouncing capitalism, then paid for his pint
Goldengrove Review: The Name Is From a Poem About Death | Hopkins wrote it to a child, and it is one of the saddest things in English, and it is a Wetherspoon
Beehive Review: The Hive Is a Political Metaphor and It Has Been Used by Everybody | Industry, monarchy, socialism, fascism – the same insects have been claimed by every ideology going
Good Samaritan Review: The Point of the Parable Is That He Was the Enemy | Samaritans were despised, and that is the entire reason the story works, and everybody has forgotten it
Heathcote and Star Review: The Double Name Means Two Pubs Became One | Almost every hyphenated pub name in Britain is a merger, a marriage, or a landlord who brought his old sign
Captain Kidd Review: They Hanged Him Twice and He Was Probably Innocent | A privateer with a royal commission, abandoned by the men who funded him, and the rope broke the first time
Gun Review: The Sign Means a Foundry, Not a Weapon | Cannon were cast in the East End, and the pubs are named after the industry, not the shooting
Morgan Arms Review: Henry Morgan Was a Pirate and They Made Him Governor | He sacked Panama, was arrested, taken to London, knighted, and sent back to run Jamaica
Prospect of Whitby Review: There Is a Noose Outside and It Is Not a Joke | The oldest riverside pub in London, and Execution Dock is a few hundred yards away, and pirates were left to drown
Bloomsbury Tavern Review: The District Name, Straight, No Twist | A 4.3 pub on Shaftesbury Avenue that simply borrows the neighbourhood’s famous name and gets on with pouring pints
Greyhound Review: The Greyhound Is Not Grey and It Sleeps Twenty Hours a Day | The fastest dog on earth, and it is a couch animal, and the name has nothing to do with the colour
Grapes Review: Dickens Danced on the Table Here and Described It in a Novel | A tiny four-hundred-year-old riverside pub, and it appears in Our Mutual Friend, and the description is not flattering
