Tuesday 19 October 2010

Most popular pub names

These are said to be the most popular pub names in England. The figures quoted are from the year 2000 and are only approximate.

The Crown (1,106)
The Red Lion (659)
The Swan (603)
The Bull (557)
The Royal Oak (557)
The King's Head (503)
The George (447)
The Plough (432)
The White Hart (370)
The Coach and Horses (168)

Posted by Scriptor Senex at 00:57

5 comments:

  1. Pearl19 October 2010 at 01:10

    Well that sounds about right!

    Pearl

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pauline19 October 2010 at 05:33

    That's a lot of repetition. They are equally unimaginative where my parents come from in Australia. There is the Top Pub, Bottom Pub and the Central Pub. The Central Pub is actually named the Central Hotel, goodness knows what the others' names are! But I bet none of them come from your list which is just so typically English.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Librarian19 October 2010 at 07:21

    I wonder why the Lion is Red. Can you find out and write about it here, please? (Of course I could find out myself... but it is a lot more entertaining if you do it!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Scriptor Senex22 October 2010 at 07:26

    The answer, Librarian, lies in a fascibnating Wikipedia article about pub names:-

    Red Lion is the name of over six hundred pubs. It thus can stand for an archetypal British pub. The lion is one of the most common charges in coats of arms, second only to the cross, and thus the Red Lion as a pub sign probably has multiple origins: in the arms or crest of a local landowner, now perhaps forgotten; as a personal badge of John of Gaunt, founder of the House of Lancaster; or in the royal arms of Scotland, conjoined to the arms of England after the Stuart succession in 1603.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Librarian22 October 2010 at 07:51

    Thank you; it does explain why The Red Lion is such a popular pub name, but it does still not explain why the lion is red :-)

    ReplyDelete

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