These three are amongst the oldest pubs in Perth. Each are three or so stories high with big Federation verandahs and a beer garden. Happily, they remain very popular.
The Sail is on the main strip in Fremantle (a city with a strong port history), so its name is appropriate. It was recently yuppified, but it still sells the widest range of microbrews in town.
The Left Bank is also in Fremantle. It’s on the south side of the river as it flows into the inner harbour. Boats heading out to sea pass by with it to port.
The Brass Monkey is in Perth’s main nightlife area. Constant in the face of the constant change around it, the Monkey has not been turned into a “chi-chi yuppie pub-ette” (thanks Tansu!). Rather, the owners opened an ever-so-trendy “wine bar” next door and left the Monkey to its comfortable grottiness.
Gee, there’s a lot of Aussies and Poms in this thread.
Drapers would have arms because they were a mediaeval trade guild, and all of them had coats of arms.
“Tumbledown Dick” is a derogatory reference to Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell, and the man who made Charles II look like a good idea.
Personally, when I go out drinking, I do it at the Jude the Obscure, named after the Thomas Hardy character. Or I could be like C. S. Lewis and get plastered at the Eagle and Child (based on the story of Jove in the form of an eagle snatching up the infant Ganymede) or the Lamb and Flag (it’s a Paschal lamb, the symbolic representation of Christ, and a reasonably common heraldic image). There are plenty of other pubs in Oxford, and I’m sure they all have interesting stories behind their names. Your support as I carry out intensive and essential research in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
There’s a One-Eyed Rat in Ripon, but I don’t know why.
My favorite pub name is the Ear Inn on Spring Street in lower Manhattan.
The Ear is one of the city’s oldest pubs, having started out a couple of centuries ago as a waterfront sailor’s dive bar. In the ensuing time it has gone a bit upscale from drunken and passed out sailors, but not too much.
The building it is in is landmarked, the exterior cannot be changed. When the current owners of the bar got it, there was a giant neon sign reading “BAR” out front. As they couldn’t take down or replace the sign because of the landmark laws, they decided to name the bar the Ear Inn, and black out the curved lobes on the right side of the letter B on the sign, so the sign now reads “EAR”
Crusoe - I meant to ask. Did you try that wine bar I pointed out to you down by Embankment station? If not, go there for lunch tomorrow! It’s faaaabulous.
Have you seen how they make all the ‘tat’ for new Oirish bars?
I was in a factory /warehouse once where they churn out all the fake old stuff for the wealth of newly ‘Old Oirish’ bars all over the world. It was incredible how they ‘age’ all the new items, guiness adverts, kettles, bicycles, barrels,…everything.
I don’t see the harm in them really, so no nukes please. Ok, its not authentic, but no one really believes it is, do they? It is more a method of exporting socialibility, as long as the bar comes with an authentic Irish manager / barman in the “Self-assembly Oirish Bar” kit.
If you’re walking up from Embankment to The Strand it’s on the right down some stairs just past the small park - it’s a cellar. I think it’s called Gordons. You can tell when you’re in the right place because it’s very cellar-y
I don’t go to pubs or bars very often, but there’s a supposedly Irish pub not two minutes’ walk from where I live. It’s called The Foggy Dew. Never been to it, though I was tempted after the Vancouver Dopefest this past Saturday while I was walking home from the bus stop. (hey, what can happen to you while crossing a road and walking a little way to get to your apartment in the dark? :D)
Then there was the one that my friends and I went to a few weeks ago, called The Frog & Firkin. My friend wanted a pub that reminded her of the British ones she’d been to last year on her trip through England and Wales. That one did the trick, because it reminded my brother of the Scottish pubs he’d been to in Scotland last August, minus all the blue smoky air. (the law says you’re not supposed to smoke indoors at public establishments in BC)
I can’t remember any other pub names, but I believe we have The Fraser Arms and The Dover Arms. Other than that, though, I just can’t say for sure what other ones we might have here.
The Bell in Derby, England. Not sure how it got it’s name but the linked article has some creepy stories about the place.
However, Noahs Ark is named after the ghost that supposedly haunts it.
Another pub in Derby is The Dolphin. Again, doesn’t say where the name came from, but the linked article provides an interesting and maybe accurate explanation of the phrase 'pull the other leg".
Another great Dublin pub name (and a pretty decent pub, too, considering the overpriced/touristy area it’s in) is Thing Mote on Suffolk Street, D2. It’s named after the old Viking assembly which met very close by.
I’m terribly jealous. Bournemouth centre is dominated by chain-pubs, and pre-club bars. I can only think of a few that aren’t. The Gander is two minutes away from my office, The Criterion (if it’s still there) is about a 15 minute walk, and the Goat and tricycle, the Bakers’ Arms, the Punch and Judy and another one that I can’t remember now are the other side of town.
