Pub Crawl (British History)

[Hatty]

Queen Mary is very close to the quay according to the map. Could it have been a Mary-of-the-Sea or Virgin Mary establishment? Clearly too overtly Catholic to be healthy. Not that Mary I is any more acceptable but Queen Mary is more ambiguous and ship-related (if you don't mention the portrait).

[Mick Harper]

Yes, the marine connection might be important. From its dilapidation the pub could be coeval with either the Queen Mary liner or Queen Mary, wife of George V -- both nineteen-thirties -- and was originally named for it/her. But that would mean somebody more modern decided on the Mary I reference. There is a vogue for odd pub-names -- Slug & Lettuce -- but this doesn't seem to fit. Probably just pig ignorance on the part of the landlord -- and a sign of the waning of folk memory I suppose.

Of course wicked people are commemorated by pubs -- Dick Turpin, the Saracens Arms, even Richard III -- but the point about Mary was that she was both bad and boring.

[Ishmael]

If I am correct, "MARI" was the old German/Anglo-Saxon way of writing the word "Queen;" "HENRI" being the way of writing the word, "King." If so, the Pub may be merely stating its name in two languages.