A well-scored Bermondsey pub flying one of the oldest and most loyal names in the English trade – the King’s Arms, the royal coat of arms itself
The Kings Arms carries a strong 4.6 across more than eighteen hundred reviews and flies one of the oldest, most common and most loyal names in the whole English pub tradition – the King’s Arms, the royal coat of arms itself. The Prat’s naming desk makes its customary bow to the crown.
Bermondsey
The Kings Arms sits in Bermondsey, serving the district’s crowds. Proper Bermondsey territory, no disclaimer needed.
The royal arms
“The King’s Arms” is among the most ancient and widespread of all pub names, flying not a portrait of a particular king but the royal coat of arms itself – the heraldic shield of the sovereign, with its lions and its motto. To display the King’s Arms was, for centuries, the plainest declaration of loyalty a pub could make, and a bold, recognisable sign that any passer-by could read. The name belongs to the same great tribe as the Crown, the Queen’s Head and the George, which the Prat has saluted across these surveys – the patriotic pub names that fly the monarchy as their badge.
The arms and their meaning
The Prat’s naming desk enjoys the specificity of “Arms.” Where the Crown flies the emblem of monarchy in the abstract and the King’s Head flies his portrait, the King’s Arms flies his heraldry – the formal coat of arms that represents the sovereign in law and ceremony. It is the same “Arms” tradition that gives us the Blacksmiths Arms and the Wentworth Arms, but here the arms are the grandest of all: not a trade or a family, but the King himself. To drink at the King’s Arms is to drink beneath the royal heraldry, the highest arms in the land.
The people’s king’s arms
What the Prat likes best is the familiar democratic irony. The royal arms are the emblem of the sovereign, the very apex of the realm – and here they fly over a public house, the most democratic of institutions, where no one is king and everyone is welcome for the price of a pint. The King’s Arms shelter, in the end, not courtiers but ordinary drinkers. The strong 4.6 across eighteen hundred reviews is a fine score for a well-loved local flying so grand and loyal a name.
The Prat’s naming desk adds a small historical note the King’s Arms carries lightly. For centuries, displaying the royal arms was not merely decorative but a genuine mark of standing – a sign that a house was, in some sense, licensed, official, aligned with the Crown and the law. Many a King’s Arms was the town’s principal inn, the place where the coach stopped, the magistrates met and the King’s business was done. To fly the royal arms was to claim a certain seriousness and respectability. That grand old association still clings faintly to the name today – the King’s Arms as the solid, established, dependable house at the heart of its patch.
Verdict
A 4.6 across eighteen hundred-plus reviews is a strong score, and the Kings Arms earns it as a well-loved, patriotic local. It flies one of the oldest names in the trade – the King’s Arms, the royal coat of arms itself – joining the great company of Crowns, Georges and Queen’s Heads that fly the monarchy over English doors.
Go for the honest welcome and the royal history of the name, and raise a pint beneath the King’s Arms in Bermondsey. The royal arms are the highest heraldry in the land – and here they crown, fittingly, an ordinary local open to all.
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]
