BEST OF BRITAIN
A rose by any other name stories of the top five peculiar pub names in England
When looking for a night out or a place to eat, we have all come across that one pub with a name so strange that we just have to laugh. We can tease the overtly high-class name of the chain pub Te Rose & Crown, named after the Tudor court of England and its symbol of the rose, but be- yond the common chain pubs are smaller pubs with much more bizarre names and even more odd stories that come with them. Here are a few of those strange and sometimes spooky pubs. One pub in London called I Am The
Only Running Footman is frequently men- tioned in lists of pubs to visit in London. It is known for being the title of a detective story written by Martha Grimes in 1986, about the fictional murder of a nearby shop girl. However, I Am Te Only Running Footman was not the original
16 FOCUS The Magazine January/February 2020
name of this endearing pub. It was origi- nally called Te Running Horse and was a popular place where footmen often ate and drank together after competing in races against one another. Te upper class of London often raced their footmen against each other and placed bets on the winning man. However, after the Great Fire of London in 1666, many of the streets were damaged or ruined and slowly the sport lost its popularity. In 1749, an ex-footman bought the place, claiming to have been the last running footman. He renamed the pub after himself and dedicated the pub and hostelry to the old duties of a foot- man, rather than the manservant duties of footmen in the late 1700s. Locally referred to as Te Footman, you can still go to the pub and hostel at Charles Street, Mayfair, London.
In early times, hostels were run by the
church and usually named by the monks who ran it. In Hull, a hostel meant for weary travellers on pilgrimages was named God Encompasses Us All. However, when this was converted to include a pub, the locals printed it the way they pronounced it rather than its actual name. Teir clever nickname was printed on the sign: Goat and Compasses, Hull. Tis sounds very close to God Encompasses Us All, yet when read on the sign, it makes every passer-by stop and wonder what a compass and a goat have in common. You can find this pub on Falkland Road, Hull. The Three Legged Mare, though a re-
cently opened pub, holds a name of histor- ical value. Te term “three-legged mare” was used to describe gallows that can hang three people at a time. Tis is depicted on
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