A 4.1 pub named The Red Lion, the single most common pub name in the land, the very archetype of the English pub
The Red Lion holds a 4.1 from five hundred and sixty-one people, and carries the single most common and iconic of all British pub names – “the Red Lion” – the very archetype of the English pub, a name so ubiquitous that it has become almost synonymous with the pub itself, and one this survey has invoked, as the benchmark of the classic heraldic beast, from its earliest pages.
The most common pub name in Britain
The Red Lion is, by common reckoning, the most common pub name in all of Britain – there are more Red Lions than any other pub name in the land, hundreds upon hundreds of them, scattered across every corner of the country. It is the quintessential, archetypal English pub name, so common that “the Red Lion” is practically a synonym for “the pub” – the default, the standard, the platonic ideal of the British pub name. This survey has referenced the Red Lion repeatedly as the benchmark of the classic heraldic-beast name, against which all the lions, bulls, and other beasts were measured; here, at last, is the great original itself. The Prat’s heraldry desk salutes the archetype: the Red Lion, the most common and iconic pub name in Britain, the very template of them all.
The many origins of the red lion
Why so ubiquitous? The Red Lion has, like the Green Man, multiple origins, which together explain its extraordinary prevalence. Most importantly, the red lion was the personal badge of John of Gaunt, the immensely powerful fourteenth-century Duke of Lancaster and founder of the House of Lancaster – and his badge spread far and wide. It was also, crucially, the heraldic emblem of Scotland (the “Lion Rampant”), and when James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603, uniting the crowns, he reportedly ordered the heraldic red lion of Scotland to be displayed on important buildings, including inns – giving a great boost to the name across the newly-joined kingdoms. And the red lion appeared in the arms of many local landowners besides. These converging royal, noble, and heraldic origins made the red lion the most widely-adopted of all pub emblems. The Prat’s history desk notes the layered pedigree: John of Gaunt, the Scottish crown, and countless local lords, all feeding the great flood of Red Lions across Britain.
The king of beasts, in red
The lion, of course, is the king of beasts – the supreme symbol of strength, courage, royalty, and nobility, met throughout this survey in its various pub incarnations (and combined with the eagle at the Griffin). The specifically red lion adds the heraldic colour of that particular badge and emblem. Together they make a name of great power and dignity – the royal beast, in its heraldic red, the noblest and most common of all pub signs. That the grandest of beasts should also be the commonest of pub names is a pleasing democratic irony this survey has often noted: the king of beasts presiding, in his hundreds, over the humblest locals of the land. The Prat’s heraldry desk enjoys the paradox: the lordly lion, borrowed grandeur made utterly commonplace, the noblest beast the most ordinary of signs.
The archetype and the individual
There is a certain poignancy in reviewing a Red Lion, for it is at once utterly generic – the commonest name in the land – and yet, like every pub, a specific and individual place, this particular Red Lion in Islington with its own character, regulars, and life. The name may be the most common in Britain, but each Red Lion is nonetheless somebody’s local, unique to those who love it. The Prat’s social desk notes the truth beneath the ubiquity: the most generic name in the land still shelters, in each instance, a real and particular pub, the archetype made flesh in a thousand individual locals. This one, with its solid 4.1 across over five hundred people, is a decent, honest, real-world example of the great archetype.
The pub
A 4.1 across five hundred and sixty-one people is a solid, volume-influenced score. The reviews describe a decent, characterful, welcoming pub doing an honest trade – a real and particular example of the most common and archetypal pub name in all of Britain.
Verdict
A solid, characterful pub named the Red Lion, the single most common and archetypal pub name in all of Britain – the king of beasts in heraldic red, badge of John of Gaunt and the Scottish crown, and the very template of the English pub this survey has invoked throughout.
Go, have a pint at the Red Lion, and raise it to the great archetype itself – the commonest name in the land, the king of beasts made humble local, the borrowed grandeur of John of Gaunt and the Scottish crown presiding, in its hundreds, over the pubs of Britain.
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]
This has the energy of someone paying very close attention to things nobody wants to. Valuable hobby.
The thing about bureaucratic language is it’s designed to obscure. This clarifies everything.