What's in a name?
What do the two pubs on the right have in common?
Well, they're both situated at near the north end of Marylebone High Street, for a start. They're both mid-Victorian - The Old Rising Sun at no. 79 was established in 1856, and The Queen's Head at no. 93 in 1863. They've both got impressive period facades above ground floor level, featuring the pubs' respective names and years of foundation. Finally, they've both had their names changed and histories erased by unsympathetic owners who shouldn't have been allowed near them in the first place. And people say Marylebone is one of the few parishes in Central London to retain a proper high street?
The Old Rising Sun is now an "ultra modern chic bar". Their words, not mine. The description on Pub Explorer goes on to say "if you are looking for something a little different, come and try us out". I doubt you'll find anything in there you couldn't find at any similar wannabe hangout, wedged between a Starbucks and a Pizza Hut on an anonymous high street anywhere in Britain. Until recently, another bar ("Dusk") squatted on these premises. I doubt the latest incarnation will do much better, and soon it'll fall into the hands of someone else with a Habitat catalogue and money to burn.
The Queen's Head, meanwhile, has been renamed The Marylebone Tup. It's part of a chain of 
nine other "Tups" around London owned by something called "The Massive Pub Company". Each one is heavily branded, and each occupies an historic licensed premises with a past life as somewhere you might actually enjoy visiting. Despite claims on the corporate website that the pub is "the social hub of the local community", I severely doubt it's anything of the sort in a lovely area like this.
I'll grudgingly concede that pub owners shouldn't be prevented by law from changing the name of historic pubs, but something really needs to be done about their desecration. It's happening up and down the country. The two establishments described above are anonymous, charmless places I'd advise you to avoid.
What's in a name? A proper boozer and a whole lot of history, poured down the drain like a dead pint of cooking lager.
Information:
If you'd like to read more about CAMRA's campaign to save our historic pubs, click here.
8 comments:
To be fair, the Tup is not too bad, considering what has been done to other pubs in the area (although I agree that what happened to the Rising sun is appalling) The two saddest examples are the Devonshire Arms, now 1888 a redeemable pub but not for those who remember it before it was 'restaurant-ised', prior to being put back to a pub, and theBlack Horse (I think?) which is now Providores restaurant. Oh and one that was just off Marylebone High street (Marylebone Lane?) too.
Bad area for pub preservation all in all!
Thanks for your comment Ricolas.
I appreciate that the Marylebone Tup may not be the worst pub in the area, but why did they have to rename a historic pub to fit their "brand"?
Pubs are supposed to be individual, and each should have a character of its own. Otherwise, they're just like the shops and fast food chains that make every high street in Britain look the same.
Even if the Marylebone Tup itself isn't so bad, I wouldn't patronise it for that reason.
For the record, I don't necessarily have a problem with pub companies owning multiple pubs, as long as they don't give them a branded corporate look. That's precisely what the Massive Pub Company have done with their "Tup" pubs - they've erased the history of the places they've acquired in favour of a corporate logo.
Killing off our pub heritage just contributes to making our lives that little bit worse. I don't want to live in a homogenised London - do you?
Hi Stonch,
Excellent post and something that really upsets me to see too. It's happening everywhere. I hate the bland corporate look and renaming something that may have stood unchanged for hundreds of years is simply wrong - the pub is part of our national heritage and was usually named for a very good reason - a pub sign tells a lengthy story about the history of a location. Thanks for raising the issue!
A good point well made, luckily there are still some outstanding heritage pubs in London (such as the Salisbury) but for how much longer?
I went to the Windermere Arms in South Kenton a while back, there's some lovely Art Deco fittings in there, but overall the place was just bland.
We need to keep trumpeting these places as part of the national heritage...if we can keep crumbling old warehouses with an interesting 'facade' from the developers so well, why not functioning heritage pubs?
I agree with you Stonch; I was reflecting that in terms of what else has been done in the area, the Tup is not quite as brutal (desite having gone in there before it was Tup-ised, I cannot really remember what it was like!)
Very few pubs around Marylebone have survived untouched, and I only see it getting worse to be honest. What has happened to the Radnor Arms up in Olympia only goes to show how planning authorities feel about victorian pubs. Fit for demolition.
That said, there are still some gems around Marylebone worth seeking out. Before some bastard developer gets their hands on them!
I don't know why you "grudgingly concede that pub owners shouldn't be prevented by law from changing the name of historic pubs". Sounds like a good idea to me.
Only tenuously related to the actual post.. the rather theme park named 'Massive Pub Company' has a rather interesting WiFi policy. 10 points for having free WiFi on the premises (I can't find any other on Marylebone High Street - Costa wanted, I believe, £c4/hour) but 0 points for blocking craigslist as a 'sex site'! I know it's technically possible to look for sex on craigslist, but what if I wanted to look for a flat. They could extend the same logic to any publication featuring a dating section and therefore ban reading of nearly all magazines and newspapers too. Especially the freebies, please.
thank you nice sharing
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