The Alma Inn is a widespread name with interesting roots.
There used to be two pubs in Ramsgate: the Blazing Donkey, and the North Pole. The latter had a bus stop outside so you could get a ticket to the North Pole.
I read somewhere that the Elephant and Castle was a bastardisation of Les Enfants de Castille. There you are, a quiz question.
You read rong.
I thought it was a bastardisation of the Infanta de Castille, and was going to throw my board rubber your way, but apparently, according to Wiki (!) they did actually keep elephants there! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_and_Castle
Henry VIII kept a Polar bear at the tower, so Wiki could, maybe, perhaps be right.
There’s a lot of ” The Tiger’s Head”s in SE Londo/Kent too…
The pub that features prominently in The Framley Examiner (Google it, it’s ace) is called The Warm Zippy. I do like that.
I have an.old stable at the bottom of the garden and as we couldn’t think of anything better to do with it we’ve turned that into a pub. We’ve been pretty traditional with the name though (as it’s a proper, traditional pub dontchaknow) and called it The Kilson’s Arms (partner’s surname is Kilbane so it’s pretty obvious what we did there).
The George & Vulture still exists as a restaurant, the Blue Boar, the Magpie and Stump – The Pickwick Papers
The Three Cripples – Oliver Twist
The Oxford Bar – Rebus novels
One-offs:
The Case Is Altered, Warwicks
The Golcar Lily, Bolster Moor
The Silent Woman, Slaithwaite
The Sair, Linfit
The Dusty Miller, Longwood
The Scapehouse, Scapegoat Hill
The Hobbit, Sowerby
Nicknames: The Tup (The Ram’s Head), Saddelworth
The Hen’s Face (Queens Head) Illingworth
The Nook (Kings Head Tavern) Holmfirth, also known I’m told, as the Bareknuckle Boys although the name is often shared with the New Inn on Dunford Road
T
The Frog and Roastbeef – highest pub in Europe (Val Thorens)
It’s terrible….. Cafe Snesko is next door and so only a couple of feet of elevation lower, and was the scene of much danish schnapps-fueled apres-ski carnage.
Although that’s probably a bit convoluted for a pub quiz question.