Whenever I’m in England, I tend to stop by pubs more often than I would frequent bars in the States. I love the dark “bitters” and the Ploughman’s lunch. The atmosphere in pubs, in my experience, is much more relaxed and friendly than the bars here.
I have a question about the names. Pubs always have names like “The Kings Head” or “The Fox and Hounds” or “The Rose and Crown” etc.
You never see “Bob’s Pub” or “The Dew Drop Inn” (Thank God.) Are there laws over there limiting naming options?
The pubs carry “House Names” names as a tradition.
Years ago, when literacy wasn’t commonplace, public houses became known by their signs.
One could recognize the “Hen and Chicks” pictorial sign without having to read the words that meant the same.
That’s why the name"dirty dozen" became obsolete when the closed shoe prevented counting above ten.--------the title"Dirty Seven" just didn’t have the proper ring to it.
A pub can have any name it wants . There is no law about this ( why should there be? ) as long as no decency or libel laws are broken anything goes.
This link gives a brief history of pub names :-
wakimika funnily enough I know of a pub called the “Dew Drop Inn”. (If it hasn’t been closed - it was a dump) in Deptford, South East London. About a mile down the road there’s the “Frog and Radiator” I kid you not.
Damn. I guess I’ll have to put my plans for opening up Ye Olde Prince Philip is a Horse’s Arse on hold until this unfair law is changed.
Hey, I know the Frog and Radiator ! The name always leaves an unpleasant image in my head …
My favourite London pub name would have to be the Bung Hole. (I didn’t look closely at the picture on the sign, though.)
Granted this is slightly off topic, but I try to explain English pub names to my wife all the time. She can’t understand why the microbrewery that I someday hope to open in Mexico should be called “El Gringo Plumiento” with appropriate signage.
I’ll leave it for someone else to translate.
When I lived in Coventry about thirty years ago there were plans to name a new pub " The Painted Lady ". Believe it or not , people got up a petition to stop this name because they thought it referred to a harlot or whore. Then somebody pointed out to them that the pub was actually named after a butterfly.
My parents have become good friends with a couple who own a pub in England (Sheffield, I believe) called ‘The Wadsley Jack.’ I love that name.
And in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, Maturin maintains a room at a boarding house known as ‘The Grapes.’ Why these names tickle me I do not know - I guess The Grapes is more original than “Highway 64/40 Motel and Gas Depot.”
When I was a kid, there was a pub near my grandmother’s house called something like “The Hopeless Task”. The pub sign was of a housemaid washing a black toddler in a bath. The pub sign has since changed for some reason…
Adding to what Small Clanger said: there are a fair number of traditional English pubs of this name. I remember one in Gwydir Street, Cambridge, and a quick Google finds others in Dover, London, Oxford, Hathern in Leicestershire, Hurley … To be honest, it had never occurred to me that it was a pun until someone recently drew it to my attention.
I fail to see how that breaks either the decency or libel laws. 
My friend Gerry owns a pub in Ireland called The Poor Scholar. Described him for many years!
“When I was a kid, there was a pub near my grandmother’s house called something like “The Hopeless Task”. The pub sign was of a housemaid washing a black toddler in a bath. The pub sign has since changed for some reason…”
It’s the ‘Labour In Vain’ in Yarnfield, Staffordshire, well known to generations of Post Office Telephone Engineers at the Post Office Central Training School just up the road.
the sign now depicts a man sowing seed in a ploughed field and crows eating it
Since you enjoy pub names, you may be intereseted in the series of mystery novels by Martha Grimes. The titles of several of her novels are pub names, but not the usual Three Anchors or Crown and Rose. Her’s are a bit eclectic, such as, “I Am the Only Running Footman”, or “The Anodyne Necklace.” They are quick reads, lots of set-apart paragraphs, perfect if you have a short attention span.
You’re right about the pub name, but this one was near Chichester in Sussex.
EJsGirl, where’s your friend’s pub? I might drop in for a pint if I’m in the vicinity.
There is a pub near where I live that has changed its sign. Called " The Black Boy" it used to show a small black child , now it depicts a Labrador dog .
I think the concept is now ingrained in the national consciousness. All pubs of all sorts have names like that. (Though some “The Grapes”, “The Castle” are less ridiculous than others “The Slug and Lettuce”)
However, I think a lot now have less venerable tradition than you might hope. It feels somehow cheating to open a NEW pub with a NEW name, but people invent things like “The Cardinals Hat”.
There’s a pub in Bristol called “The Black Boy Inn” which happens to be on Whiteladies Road.
There was a campaign a couple of years ago to have the name of the pub changed, until it was pointed out to the protesters that by their own logic they ought to be lobbying for the road name to be changed also - it all went a bit quiet after that 
Unfortunately, a lot of chain pubs these days go for deliberately “strange” names as a marketing gimmic - eg. Rat and Parrot or Slug and Lettuce - which only serves to make the whole thing seem somewhat contrived.