‘The Commercial’ is a classic honest pub name from the age of trade and the travelling salesman – plain, sturdy, and true
The Commercial in Herne Hill holds ten hundred and eighty-seven reviews and a 4.3 – a large, solid sample – and it carries a classic, honest, sturdy old pub name from the great age of trade and the travelling salesman: “The Commercial,” plain and true, a name rooted in the working, commercial life of the Victorian world.
The commercial name
“The Commercial” is a genuinely old and honest pub name, and it comes from a specific and interesting history. In the Victorian age and before, many pubs and hotels styled themselves “Commercial” – as in the “Commercial Hotel” or “Commercial Inn” – to signal that they catered to “commercial travellers,” the travelling salesmen who criss-crossed the country selling goods on behalf of manufacturers and merchants. These commercial travellers were a significant class of the working world, constantly on the road, and they needed places to stay, eat and drink. A “Commercial” hotel or pub advertised itself as suitable for these respectable working travellers – offering good, honest accommodation and hospitality for the men of trade and commerce.
The commercial traveller
The “commercial traveller” – the travelling salesman – was a genuine institution of the Victorian and early modern working world. These were the men who took the goods and catalogues of the manufacturers out onto the road, travelling from town to town, shop to shop, taking orders and drumming up trade. They were a familiar figure of the age – forever on the move, staying in the “commercial hotels,” carrying their sample cases, living a life of trains, inns and endless travel. They had their own culture, their own rooms (“commercial rooms”) in the hotels, and their own place in the social order – respectable working men of trade, the foot-soldiers of the great Victorian commercial economy.
A pub named “The Commercial” recalls this whole world – the age of trade and travel, the commercial travellers on the road, the honest working hospitality of the commercial hotel. It is a name rooted in the practical, working, commercial life of the age – not grand or romantic, but honest, sturdy and real, celebrating the world of trade, work and travel that built the modern economy. There is real appeal in this honest, workmanlike name.
The honest, unpretentious name
This survey has consistently celebrated the honest, unpretentious pub name – the plain, true, workmanlike name that makes no false claim to grandeur. “The Commercial” is squarely in this tradition – a plain, honest, sturdy name from the working, commercial world, entirely without pretension or romance. It celebrates trade, work, commerce and honest hospitality – the practical business of the working world. In an age of self-consciously clever and fashionable bar names, there is something genuinely refreshing about the plain honesty of “The Commercial” – a name that simply and honestly declares its roots in the working, commercial life of the Victorian age.
There is a nice fit, too, with the pub’s own commercial purpose – for a pub is, after all, a commercial enterprise, a business of hospitality. “The Commercial” wears this honestly, celebrating the world of trade and commerce of which it is itself a part. Its large and loyal following suggests it does its own commercial business well – a genuinely good, popular, honest local, true to the sturdy, working spirit of its name.
The pub
A large, popular pub doing a fair 4.3 across a large and real sample, honestly named “The Commercial” – a classic name from the age of trade and the travelling salesman, plain, sturdy and true.
Verdict
Large, popular, and honestly named “The Commercial” – a sturdy old name from the age of trade and the commercial traveller, plain and unpretentious and true.
Have a pint at the Commercial, and raise it to the honest working world of the name – the age of trade and travel, the commercial travellers on the road, and the plain, sturdy hospitality of the commercial hotel.
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]
The thing about good writing is you feel the exhaustion. This is written by someone tired of explaining failure.
The thing about partners of The London Prat obsessives is they’re essentially saying “satire has replaced who my partner was.”