A Bermondsey pub flying a warm personal name – Alice – that cannot help but summon Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland and the girl who fell down the rabbit-hole
The Alice carries a 4.3 across more than fifteen hundred reviews and flies a warm, simple, human first name. The Prat’s naming desk, fond of the personal name over the corporate abstraction, was charmed – and could not help tumbling down a certain rabbit-hole the name inevitably opens.
Towards Bermondsey
The Alice sits towards Bermondsey and the London Bridge quarter, on the south-bank side, serving the district’s crowds. Proper Bermondsey-and-Southwark territory, no disclaimer needed.
The warmth of the name
“Alice” is a lovely, warm, classic English first name – soft, friendly and timeless, with roots in the old name Adelaide, meaning “noble.” To put a personal first name on a pub is to promise warmth, welcome and human character, the sense of being received by a person rather than a brand. The Prat has celebrated the personal-name venues throughout these surveys, and Alice is a particularly gentle and welcoming example – a name that sounds like an old friend, and lends the pub an easy, human charm.
Down the rabbit-hole
The Prat cannot, of course, resist the most famous Alice of all – Alice of Wonderland, the curious little girl of Lewis Carroll’s immortal tale who followed the White Rabbit down the hole and into a world of talking caterpillars, mad tea-parties and grinning cats. It is one of the best-loved stories ever written, and any pub called the Alice inevitably summons a little of its whimsy and wonder – the sense of stepping through a door into somewhere curiouser and more delightful than the ordinary world outside. A pub, after all, is its own kind of Wonderland – a place set apart, where the ordinary rules relax and strange and delightful conversations unfold.
The mad tea-party
The Prat’s favourite thread is the tea-party. The Mad Hatter’s tea-party is the most famous gathering in all of children’s literature – a chaotic, delightful, never-ending party where the tea flows and the conversation makes glorious nonsense. There is something rather pub-like in it: the endless round, the eccentric company, the cheerful nonsense of good talk. A pub called the Alice carries that happy echo – the invitation to a gathering that is a little mad, a little magical, and thoroughly welcoming. The 4.3 across fifteen hundred reviews suggests plenty tumble happily down this particular rabbit-hole.
Verdict
A 4.3 across fifteen hundred-plus reviews is a solid score, and the Alice earns it on a warm, human, charming name. It flies the gentle first name of Alice – promising the welcome of a place with a human heart – while inevitably summoning Wonderland, the rabbit-hole and the mad tea-party of Lewis Carroll’s immortal tale.
Go for the warm, personal welcome and the whisper of Wonderland, and step through the door of the Alice. A pub is its own kind of rabbit-hole – a place set apart where the ordinary rules relax – and this one wears the name of its most famous explorer.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
