Pub names

[badhorsey]

Why is it that whenever a pub changes its name, the old name is always retained?  The original sign usually remains somewhere, and the pub always seems to revert back to its original name at some point.

Is this a byelaw or something?

[bernardo]

You are imagining things.  There is no such law, and nor is there any such practice (except in a few occasioanl cases).

[badhorsey]

Thank for the less-than-helpful, and woefully inaccurate answer.  Anyone with more manners and better eyesight willing to help on this one?

[fat robert]

If you'll just lower that handbag for a second badhorsey, I think bernardo is right - my Grandad is always telling me what the pubs I go to now used to be called in his day - yet I see no evidence of any old signs or references to the old names...

[badhorsey]

*Drops handbag*

It's usually there somewhere on the exterior - or in the new signage, there's frequently a reference to the "old" name.  I live in London and see this all the time; and I've seen many pubs being renamed for a while then reverting back to their original name.  So it's certainly not a figment of my imagination!

[TariqE]

I know what you're talking about Badhorsey.  It is seen on many pubs.  But you also see some pubs with old signage (often chiseled into the stone) that still have the same name.

One reason may be that many pubs change name because of a bad reputation or because a previous landlord lost his licence and the new landlord doesn't want to apply for a licence using the same name.  A few years down the line though and a future landlord will find out what the pub was called before the current name and go back to using the old name. 

Some people prefer to use old traditional names and some (pub-chains especially All Bar Slug, etc) will use the same name for every pub they own because they want their 'product' to be homogenised.

[bernardo]

badhorsey - you are still confused as well as rude.

 

In your question you said "The original sign usually remains somewhere, and the pub always seems to revert back to its original name at some point" even though the original sign does not, in fact, "usually remain somewhere".  It is far more likely that you are merely noticing the (few) ones where the old sign remains somewhere, and you are oblivious to the large number of pubs which have changed their name without the sign remaining.  And the pub does not "always seem to revert back to its original name"; there are very many pubs which have changed their names permanently, as has already been pointed out by fat robert.

 

With reference to your statement that "I've seen many pubs being renamed for a while then reverting back to their original name.  So it's certainly not a figment of my imagination!", I did not suggest that it did not happen, and nor did I suggest that it was only a figment of your imagination.  I merely stated, Factually, Accurately, Correctly and Truthfully, that this process is not, as you claimed, universal or compulsory.

 

The thing which I said that you were imagining was the idea that it was universal rather than only occasional.

[natalie_1982]

Jeeez, you lot can be just as catty as us!  I know what you mean BadHorsey.  The town where I was born had, in its day, hundres of pubs on one main street.  Every other building was a pub.  A lot of these places have reverted to the old names.

 

Tariq, I don't know if it is to do with popularity as a pub I knew was called "The Millhouse", always had been as far as I knew (I'm 22) but last year it was changed to "The Nag's Head on the River".  Apparently, when my dad was a boy that's what it was called then.

[badhorsey]

Bernardo,

Everything you say, plus one.

[bernardo]

I am glad that you now agree with my brilliance.

[cheyenne]

Ansteyg,I use to use the Bear cross pub nr west howe where I use to live.You didnt go to oakmead school did you?Is your name anything to do with anstey road?