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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: What's in a pub name?
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Pub names are often intriguing. There's any amount of coloured lions and horses, and pubs named after royals, and some pub names suggest there's a story behind them. "The Rats' Castle" is one, "The Blinking Owl" another.
Some are also just plain daft or contrived. "Jude the Obscure" and "The Philosopher and Firkin" come to mind. Any other real-life daft pub names you've seen? Did the pub live up to it?
Anecdotes of eccentric pubs generally, most welcome.
[ 13. October 2013, 08:55: Message edited by: Ariel ]
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
The Firkin ones are all based on a small pub brewery model. I got a group of us banned for wearing a Fox and Firkin sweatshirt, that one was in Lewisham. I have also come across the Ferret and Firkin, Forest and Firkin (that one has reverted to the George and Dragon) and a few others.
There are a couple I see on my wanders (peripatetic role) - The Widow's Son immediately comes to mind and makes me wonder about the story behind it (that's by Devons Road DLR). Other stories I wonder about are The Blind Beggar in Whitechapel and the The Little Driver in Bow.
The Goat and Compass (used to be one in South Norwood) was supposed to be a corruption of God encompasses and The Cat and Fiddle from adeste fideles which suggests they were old pilgrim inns, church run.
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
The Bleeding Wolf in Hale, near Altrincham is supposedly on the site of where the last wolf in Cheshire was killed.
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Anyone play Pub Cricket? You score runs equal to the number of legs on the pub sign (so The Goat and Compasses would be 6, Red Lion 4, King's Head 2) and lose a wicket if there are no legs (The Plough, The Old Ship etc).
I've tried to think of a motorway version, using lorries, but haven't really come up with anything yet.
Firenze, bored passenger.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Locally we have the Parrot and Frog, which is a real ale pub.
Locally there is "The Bath" that is the pub by what was public baths. Not just swimming baths but places people who did not have bathrooms could go for a bath. There were also Turkish baths available. It looks as if being clean in Sheffield a century ago was a social occasion.
Jengie
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Anyone play Pub Cricket? You score runs equal to the number of legs on the pub sign (so The Goat and Compasses would be 6, Red Lion 4, King's Head 2) and lose a wicket if there are no legs (The Plough, The Old Ship etc).
If the King's Head is 2 what would The Three Goats' Heads be? I'm guessing this would score 0 as it's only heads on the pub sign - or does it count as 12?
There's a pub opening locally in the near future, to be called The Plum Pudding, which is actually the nickname of the Oxfordshire Sandy Black Pig rather than a reference to the pudding itself. Its menu, I'm told, will feature a lot of pork-based dishes.
This reminds me of a business trip I once made where we got taken out for a pub lunch. The car park had a pig sty next to it with an enormous sow and little piglets, and chickens were roaming around loose in the car park (so we had to park carefully). The first thing we saw on entering the pub was a huge statuette of a chicken and after that it was no real surprise that the menu featured quite a lot of pork and chicken. I'm hoping there'll be a pig sty next to the Plum Pudding when it gets going, but suspect not.
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Anyone play Pub Cricket? You score runs equal to the number of legs on the pub sign (so The Goat and Compasses would be 6, Red Lion 4, King's Head 2) and lose a wicket if there are no legs (The Plough, The Old Ship etc).
If the King's Head is 2 what would The Three Goats' Heads be? I'm guessing this would score 0 as it's only heads on the pub sign - or does it count as 12?
It's the being referred to, even if only a part of its anatomy is specified.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
We played different rules: The King's Head was 0 because there were no legs. But that might have been to keep the game mythog around the 3 of us.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
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blackbeard
Ship's Pirate
# 10848
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Posted
Not especially historical, but we have a local pub called The King's Head.
The portrait on the sign is of King Charles I.
Posts: 823 | From: Hampshire, UK | Registered: Dec 2005
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
The Firkin ones are all based on a small pub brewery model.
Well, it was originally until David Bruce sold out to one of the big companies and then they became just another big pub chain. The brewery disappeared a long time ago and I don't think the pub chain exists any more either
quote:
I got a group of us banned for wearing a Fox and Firkin sweatshirt, that one was in Lewisham.
Heh, I remember those tee shirts. I seem to remember they a slogan along the lines of "For Fox sake, buy me a Firkin pint"
There used to be a pub on the Old Kent Road (don't know if it's still there) called "The World Turned Upside Down". My dad used to drink there apparently.
Just outside the village of Tadworth in Surrey is a pub called "The Bell", but for some reason has always been known as "The Rat" to the locals.
[ 13. October 2013, 12:23: Message edited by: Spike ]
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
It's a real shame when the old names are replaced by corporate stuff like the Slug and Lettuce chain, and eliminate history. Sometimes it's possible to get them changed back.
The Star in Rolvenden, related to the church dedication to St Mary, spent a brief period under the name of a county cricketer from the village, but the villagers wanted it back, and got it. The Bear and Ragged Staff in Crayford transmogrified into the Orange Kipper, losing its lovely wrought iron sign. The manager off-handedly suggested it had gone into the skip. But it got its name, and the sign, back. (I have never known what the connection with the earldom of Warwick was.)
The Plough in Dulwich, at the end of Plough Lane, now leaves the road without meaning. The Pie and Kilderkin in Forest Hill, after a sojourn as Hobgoblin is now just the Hob. Hobgoblin also eliminated the George Canning in Brixton, with local politico associations.
Not that I go into pubs much. Only for folk singing purposes. But I do like the way they encapsulate history.
[ 13. October 2013, 12:13: Message edited by: Penny S ]
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
When they drove a dual carriageway through the old streets of Dover they lost The Cause is Altered and The Five Alls. (There's a nice web page on the first - the altered cause was the abandonment of smuggling through the secret tunnel from the cellars, apparently) The tunnel apparently linked to the second, with the sign showing a lawyer who pleads for all, a priest who prays for all, a farmer who works for all, a soldier who fights for all, and the devil, who claims all! They were tiny little places. Five Alls You can get to the Cause from that page.
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
The Crown & Sceptre in Streatham became J J Moon's when it was taken over by Wetherspoon, but changed back to its original name after a lot of local pressure.
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I wonder how many people have misread "The Five Alls" as "The Five Ales" over the years...
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
There is a well-known pub in the Belgian city of Ghent. It stands next to the Leie/Lys River, and it is called 'Waterhouse at the Beerside' (Waterhuis aan de Bierkant). The first time I saw it, it took me some time to find out: what's wrong with this name? ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
My Dad was one for slang pub names. The Red Lion would be the "Rampant Cat" (because the sign was usually a lion rampant), The Black Swan was the "Mucky Duck" while my favourite was the "Bird and Bastard", more formally The Eagle and Child, popular in the North-west of England.
Odd that we don't see many named the "Labour in Vain" now, certainly with the traditional sign.
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
The Blind Beggar in Whitechapel: the name comes from the legend or romance of Henry de Montfort. The legend is that he survived the Battle of Evesham and wandered the highways and byways of England begging, partly to raise a dowry so he could marry Lady Maud (also called Mad Maud) Mortimer after she was widowed in the same battle.
The Blind Beggar in Whitechapel has two claims to fame: First, it was the place where William Booth first preached the virtues of godliness and temperance, putting him on the path to founding the Salvation Army; Second, it gained notoriety in the 1960s as being the pub where the Ronnie Kray gunned down a gangster called Cornell.
The pub on the green opposite Llandaff Cathedral is The Lamb and Flag and the sign is as you would expect - the Agnus Dei with the wounded side.
Pubs called The Case (or Cause) is Altered get their name from being run by veterans of the Peninsular Wars or their widows and were originally called Casa altera. Modern pub signs showing people in cells or behind bars show only the ignorance of the pub company which owns the house.
Surprised no one has mentioned Oxford's Eagle and Child - loved by all as the Bird & Baby!
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
...
There used to be a pub on the Old Kent Road (don't know if it's still there) called "The World Turned Upside Down". My dad used to drink there apparently.
Flats, I think, when I last went past it a bit over a year ago.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
When I was living in Swansea, Fisherman & Firkin at Oystermouth Road was one of my favourite pubs. I doubt that it still exists though.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
We played different rules: The King's Head was 0 because there were no legs. But that might have been to keep the game mythog around the 3 of us.
The version we played (courtesy of the AA, if memory serves me correctly, involved knocking scores off for Arms. So The Lord Nelson would score one 2-1=1. I think you lost ten for The King's (etc) Arms.
Charles I is often also shown for The Oak or The Old Oak, as he supposedly hid in one after (I think) the Battle of Worcester.
There used to be a pub (somewhere in Lancashire, I think) called The Tirteenth Mounted Cheshire Rifleman. Several of these about I think, except that this one had Mounted crossed out, because the sign showed the man falling off his horse.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I quote the web page on the tradition of the Dover Cause is altered. But the others would be similar to the Marquis of Granby, wouldn't they? He having funded veterans with the wherewithal for setting them up as a pension.
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Here's the Wikipedia page on pub names, with yet another etymology of Causes being altered.
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Or there would be, if I hadn't got distracted. Pub Names
Nothing on the 5 Alls, or, oddly, The Bull.
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
Originally posted by Curiosity Killed:
quote:
There are a couple I see on my wanders (peripatetic role) - The Widow's Son immediately comes to mind and makes me wonder about the story behind it
I was told, many years ago(used to go there occasionally), that the Widow's Son went to sea and she saved him a hot cross bun every easter until he came back. Which he didn't. Hence, the hot cross buns strung across the bar, still one added each year. The pub was also known as the Bun House.
Don't know how true any of it is (apart from the fact that there are strings of hot cross buns across the bar, or at least there were 35 or so years ago).
M.
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
My local pub is The Rats Castle. They got in trouble when they had a new pub sign made that had a castle looking rather like Windsor.
Near St Pauls in London, there is "The Book, Bell and Candle", which I suspect used to be the diocesan exorcists house, although I have not seen any proof of this.
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I remember checking out The Slug and Lettuce menu a few years ago and being put off by seeing "The Slug Burger" on it. (Now renamed as The Classic.)
[ 13. October 2013, 16:45: Message edited by: Ariel ]
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Higgs Bosun
Shipmate
# 16582
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Some are also just plain daft or contrived. "Jude the Obscure" and "The Philosopher and Firkin" come to mind.
(Forgive me, but I'm not quite sure what is daft or contrived about Jude the Obscure, particularly if the pub were in Wessex or Oxford.)
Posts: 313 | From: Near the Tidal Thames | Registered: Aug 2011
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Higgs Bosun:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Some are also just plain daft or contrived. "Jude the Obscure" and "The Philosopher and Firkin" come to mind.
(Forgive me, but I'm not quite sure what is daft or contrived about Jude the Obscure, particularly if the pub were in Wessex or Oxford.)
Which at least one of them is, on the fringes of Jericho, which, lightly disguised, is fairly prominent in Jude the Obscure... OK, the pub was a new build in the past 20 years, but the name is perfectly appropriate.
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Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
It strikes me as a bit pretentious for a pub name. Still on the Hardy theme, there is also "Far From The Madding Crowd" which is in the heart of the city and prone to being packed out.
Btw, the Bird and Baby has sometimes been known as the Fowl and Foetus.
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
Or there would be, if I hadn't got distracted. Pub Names
Nothing on the 5 Alls, or, oddly, The Bull.
Good article that, although sad that the inverted commas are almost palpable when it's trying to explain The Black Boy. There are several where I grew up which ARE named for Charles II and have been for 300 odd years....
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Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
It strikes me as a bit pretentious for a pub name. Still on the Hardy theme, there is also "Far From The Madding Crowd" which is in the heart of the city and prone to being packed out.
Btw, the Bird and Baby has sometimes been known as the Fowl and Foetus.
FFTMC actually keeps its beer *very* well - shame then that it's like drinking in a shop. However, until about 10 minutes ago I was in the Rusty Bicycle. Now that's a silly contrived name.
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And is it true? For if it is....
Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
quote:
posted by QLib
Charles I is often also shown for The Oak or The Old Oak, as he supposedly hid in one after (I think) the Battle of Worcester.
Its The Royal Oak and is so-called because Charles II hid in one near Boscobel in ? Shropshire after the Battle of Worcester.
Battle of Worcester was 1651 - Charles I executed January 1649.
There are pubs called The Black Boy scattered along the South Coast, which supposedly are so-called because that was the nickname for Charles II when he was younger (he was very sallow) and he spent some weeks travelling along the south coast after Worcester looking for a boat to take him to France.
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Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
quote:
posted by QLib
Charles I is often also shown for The Oak or The Old Oak, as he supposedly hid in one after (I think) the Battle of Worcester.
Its The Royal Oak and is so-called because Charles II hid in one near Boscobel in ? Shropshire after the Battle of Worcester.
Battle of Worcester was 1651 - Charles I executed January 1649.
There are pubs called The Black Boy scattered along the South Coast, which supposedly are so-called because that was the nickname for Charles II when he was younger (he was very sallow) and he spent some weeks travelling along the south coast after Worcester looking for a boat to take him to France.
True, but not just the south coast. The pocket of them I was referring to is in north Worcestershire/South Shropshire. There's a line that the south coast ones have come up with it as a retrospective justification to hide the "true" link to slavery. I can't comment on that, but ours are about as far inland as you can get in the UK, within spitting distance of th Boscobel Oak,and *definitely* to do with Charles II
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Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by M.:
Originally posted by Curiosity Killed:
quote:
There are a couple I see on my wanders (peripatetic role) - The Widow's Son immediately comes to mind and makes me wonder about the story behind it
I was told, many years ago(used to go there occasionally), that the Widow's Son went to sea and she saved him a hot cross bun every easter until he came back. Which he didn't. Hence, the hot cross buns strung across the bar, still one added each year. The pub was also known as the Bun House.
Don't know how true any of it is (apart from the fact that there are strings of hot cross buns across the bar, or at least there were 35 or so years ago).
M.
And IIRC correctly about 20 years ago too.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
quote:
posted by QLib
Charles I is often also shown for The Oak or The Old Oak, as he supposedly hid in one after (I think) the Battle of Worcester.
Its The Royal Oak and is so-called because Charles II hid in one near Boscobel in ? Shropshire after the Battle of Worcester.
Battle of Worcester was 1651 - Charles I executed January 1649.
Yes, whoops ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
Brain cells have taken a battering this week. Sorry. And I agree is it mainly Royal Oaks, but I have seen other Oaks trying to cash in on the game.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Ooh, I knew the story of the Widow's Son just hadn't connected it to that pub there. Apparently the tradition of the hot cross bun was still happening in 2011. I'll have to see if I can get in there. It's looking very woebegone now - a little island of old London amongst new buildings and building sites. A bit like Bow Church, which is isolated on an island in the middle of the A11 with no crossings to it, so you take your life into your hands trying to visit it.
I can't find a reason for the Little Driver, but the pub sign has a train. That pub is more or less opposite the Bow Bells, but that's pretty obvious - the nearest pub to Bow Church.
The Blind Beggar looks as if it's doing OK, unlike so many pubs that I've seen knocked down and rebuilt. The one opposite Custom House DLR has been completely demolished in the last few weeks, as has the one opposite Bonner Bridge into Victoria Park. (I could probably find out what they were called as I probably have photographs)
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
Some people were upset when the Dun Cow, at Stretton on Dunsmore in the Midlands, had its name changed to Crazy Daisy's - but it was in fact highly appropriate. It related to the legend of the Dun Cow, which lived on the Dunsmore and was driven mad when a witch milked it into a sieve. Being a magic cow, it would produce milk until the bucket was full, but with no bucket, it had to keep on giving ad infinitum. Sir Guy of Warwick was the hero who was sent to slay the enraged cow.
Sadly, the building burned down a couple of years ago.
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Dal Segno
al Fine
# 14673
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
We used to play pub cricket when I was a child - equally bored in cars. The Fox and Hounds was a particularly good one to get
Our version has you getting one run for each leg, losing a wicket if its a Head or Arms, and scoring nothing if there are no legs, head, or arms.
The Million Hare in Woolwich was the highest scoring pub in Britain (4,000,000 runs) before it became Clancy's Pub (2 runs). The highest scoring pub that currently exists AFAIK is The Twenty Churchwardens in Cockley Cley, Norfolk (40 runs). My daughter was delighted that she was "in" the one and only time we have driven through Cockley Cley.
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HughWillRidmee
Shipmate
# 15614
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Posted
I always smiled when driving past "The Dog House" at Frilford Heath.
If you're going to be in the dog house you might as well......
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
YMMV on Wetherspoons' pubs, but I do like their naming policy of using local connections. Local 'spoons include The Six Chimneys, Titus Salt, The Timepiece. I've just been in The Golden Bee in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Surprised no one has mentioned the 'Help the Poor Struggler', named for landlord and former hangman Albert Pierrepoint.
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TonyK
Host Emeritus
# 35
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Posted
I would like to offer Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem.
It claims to be the oldest pub in England (any challengers?) and is an intriguing place with some bars partially in caves in the cliff.
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Posts: 2717 | From: Gloucestershire | Registered: May 2001
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
It would be nice if the saloons and pubs around here had such charming names! The Edison doesn't quite have the same quaintness.
But (a bit off topic), when I was with some friends in Malahide, we asked the taxi driver to recommend a place with good food. He suggested The Oil and View. Strange name we thought, but when we took another taxi to dinner, we asked to go to The Oil and View. No problem! When we got there, we discovered our unsuspecting Irish accents had delivered us to The Island View.
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Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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HughWillRidmee
Shipmate
# 15614
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by TonyK:
I would like to offer Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem.
It claims to be the oldest pub in England (any challengers?) and is an intriguing place with some bars partially in caves in the cliff.
The Bell Inn, Finedon makes a similar claim tracing direct descent from 1042 as the Tingdene Hostelrie, a monastic hospice for travellers. The pub has occupied more than one location in the town since then and the assertion may be as spurious as is, I suspect, my, just noticed, old secondary school's claim that "In Our 400 Years Existence We've Always Striven for Excellence" which seems to rest on a rather dodgy connection to a late Elizabethan Dame School.
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The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things.. but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them...
W. K. Clifford, "The Ethics of Belief" (1877)
Posts: 894 | From: Middle England | Registered: Apr 2010
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by HughWillRidmee:
I always smiled when driving past "The Dog House" at Frilford Heath.
If you're going to be in the dog house you might as well......
I've never been there but in the North Lanes in Brighton there's a pub named The Office (I'm sure there was one in or near Reading with that name some years ago). Very handy if you are in a session one afternoon and get a phone call ......
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jedijudy:
... He suggested The Oil and View ...
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif) Maybe I should change my Ship title to "oilander" ...
One of my favourite pub names is The Honest Lawyer - having worked in a lawyers' office I can quite appreciate the irony. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
[ 14. October 2013, 02:26: Message edited by: piglet ]
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
The Fighting Cocks in St Albans also claims to be the oldest pub in England.
Not that it now bears much resemblance to the pub of my youth, having been "gentrified" within an inch of its life and is full of signs saying "mind your head" and "uneven floor" - what would anyone expect in somewhere converted from a 15th century cockpit?
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
The Haunch of Venison in Salisbury dates back to about 1320, or possibly earlier, and is also another haunted pub (well, it's not surprising that you'd find spirits in a pub). Also, the Turf Tavern in Oxford is said to have been mentioned in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales". It's just at the edge of the old city walls, which form part of the back garden, with the tower of New College (built 1379) looming over it. However it sounds as if Tony K's pub wins by about a century.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
The Haunch of Venison in Salisbury dates back to about 1320, or possibly earlier, and is also another haunted pub (well, it's not surprising that you'd find spirits in a pub). Also, the Turf Tavern in Oxford is said to have been mentioned in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales". It's just at the edge of the old city walls, which form part of the back garden, with the tower of New College (built 1379) looming over it. However it sounds as if Tony K's pub wins by about a century.
The Turf claims "circa 13th century" for its foundations, but the oldest bit standing is 17th century. By the same token, the Bear claims 1242, but is currently located in its own stables, if that makes sense - ie the main pub was where Oxford Analytica and the back of All Bar One now is.
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And is it true? For if it is....
Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
Sorry for double posting (again). One for the connoisseurs in Oxford is that the oldest pub actually standing is probably the Priory, up behind the Kassam stadium. It started life as, er, a priory, so hasn't always been a pub, but its building (ie the one that is standing there rather than just the foundations a la the Turf, or being on the site, like the Bear) dates from 1445.
Sadly, it closed down over the summer and is now in a very sorry state.
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And is it true? For if it is....
Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
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