Marquis Cornwallis Review: Named After the Man Who Lost America
Marquis Cornwallis Review: Named After the Man Who Lost America | Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown and handed the United States its independence. Bloomsbury gave him a pub.
Tag: pub review London
London Hospital Tavern Review: The Elephant Man Was Kept Across the Road
London Hospital Tavern Review: The Elephant Man Was Kept Across the Road | Joseph Merrick lived in the hospital for four years, and the doctor who took him in did it because nowhere else would
Ye Olde Review: The Ye Is a Lie and It Was Always Pronounced The
Ye Olde Review: The Ye Is a Lie and It Was Always Pronounced The | A printer’s substitution for a letter that no longer existed, and everybody has been saying it wrong for a century
Victoria Review: She Was Not Amused Is Almost Certainly Something She Never Said
Victoria Review: She Was Not Amused Is Almost Certainly Something She Never Said | A queen who laughed constantly, a phrase with no source, and the most successful piece of misattribution in English
Fitzrovia Review: A Pub Named After the District Named After a Pub
Fitzrovia Review: A Pub Named After the District Named After a Pub | The Fitzroy Tavern named the neighbourhood. Now a second pub has named itself after the neighbourhood. The snake is eating its tail.
The Ship Review: A Landlocked Vessel in the Middle of Fitzrovia
The Ship Review: A Landlocked Vessel in the Middle of Fitzrovia | One of England’s commonest pub names, on a street that has never seen the sea, in the grand tradition of the nautical pub inland
Blacksmiths Review: The Farrier Is Still Here and the Blacksmith Is Not
Blacksmiths Review: The Farrier Is Still Here and the Blacksmith Is Not | One trade died with the motor car and the other did not, and the difference is the horse’s foot
Adam and Eve Review: The Fig Leaf Was Added by a Pope
Adam and Eve Review: The Fig Leaf Was Added by a Pope | The nudity in Renaissance art was painted over centuries later, and the man who did it was nicknamed the trouser-maker
Moby Dick Review: Greenland Dock Is Named After the Whaling and the Whales Are Gone
Moby Dick Review: Greenland Dock Is Named After the Whaling and the Whales Are Gone | London had a whale fishery, the oil lit the streets, and the industry was killed by a man drilling a hole
Old Justice Review: A 4.8, and the Blindfold on Justice Started as a Joke
Old Justice Review: A 4.8, and the Blindfold on Justice Started as a Joke | She was originally depicted with her eyes open, and the blindfold was satire, and it was adopted sincerely
Parlour Review: A Parlour Is the Room Where You Speak
Parlour Review: A Parlour Is the Room Where You Speak | From the French parler, it was the one room in a monastery where the silence was suspended
Cart and Horses Review: Iron Maiden Played Their First Gigs Here
Cart and Horses Review: Iron Maiden Played Their First Gigs Here | A pub in Stratford, a bass player from Leytonstone, and the biggest metal band Britain has produced
Lighthouse Review: The Trinity Buoy Lighthouse Was Built to Test Lighthouses
Lighthouse Review: The Trinity Buoy Lighthouse Was Built to Test Lighthouses | London’s only lighthouse, on the Thames, and it never guided a single ship
Pub on the Park Review: London Fields Was a Field and It Is the Oldest Kind of Land
Pub on the Park Review: London Fields Was a Field and It Is the Oldest Kind of Land | Common land, grazing rights, and the enclosures took almost all of it away
Pepper Street Review: Pepper Was Money and It Was Counted Grain by Grain
Pepper Street Review: Pepper Was Money and It Was Counted Grain by Grain | A peppercorn rent is a real legal instrument, and the spice was once worth its weight in silver
Salmon and Ball Review: They Hanged Two Weavers Outside This Pub
Salmon and Ball Review: They Hanged Two Weavers Outside This Pub | The Spitalfields silk weavers smashed the new looms, and two of them were executed in front of this building
Old Ship Review: A Ship of Theseus Is a Pub That Has Been Refitted
Old Ship Review: A Ship of Theseus Is a Pub That Has Been Refitted | Replace every plank, one at a time, and ask whether it is the same ship – and the pub trade does this constantly
Hope and Anchor Review: The Anchor Was a Christian Symbol Because the Cross Was Illegal
Hope and Anchor Review: The Anchor Was a Christian Symbol Because the Cross Was Illegal | A hidden cross, drawn in the catacombs, and hope is the anchor of the soul
Rookwood Review: A Rookery Was a Slum and the Birds Got the Blame
Rookwood Review: A Rookery Was a Slum and the Birds Got the Blame | Rooks nest in dense noisy colonies, and Victorian London used the word for its worst districts
Tooke Review: He Was Tried for Treason for Wanting People to Vote
Tooke Review: He Was Tried for Treason for Wanting People to Vote | A radical, an acquittal, and the year the British state tried to hang men for asking for a reform bill
Eleanor Review: He Built Twelve Crosses for His Wife and Three Are Left
Eleanor Review: He Built Twelve Crosses for His Wife and Three Are Left | Edward I marked every place her body rested on the way to Westminster, and Charing Cross is the last of them
Queens Head Review: The Queen on the Sign Is Almost Never Named
Queens Head Review: The Queen on the Sign Is Almost Never Named | Thirty women with rooms named after them in this survey, and we have identified three
Carpenter’s Arms Review: The Guild Owned the Trade and You Could Not Work Without It
Carpenter’s Arms Review: The Guild Owned the Trade and You Could Not Work Without It | Seven years’ apprenticeship, a monopoly enforced by law, and the compasses are on the sign
Rusty Bike Review: The Bicycle Did More for Women Than Almost Anything
Rusty Bike Review: The Bicycle Did More for Women Than Almost Anything | It was denounced as immoral, it forced a change in what women were allowed to wear, and Susan B Anthony said it emancipated them
Festival Inn Review: The Festival of Britain Was a Tonic and They Demolished It
Festival Inn Review: The Festival of Britain Was a Tonic and They Demolished It | A deliberate act of cheerfulness in a bankrupt country, and the incoming government pulled it down almost immediately
Star of the East Review: Limehouse Had a Chinatown and It Was Almost Entirely Invented
Star of the East Review: Limehouse Had a Chinatown and It Was Almost Entirely Invented | A few hundred sailors, a handful of shops, and a moral panic that produced a century of fiction