When it comes to being honoured through London’s pub names, the royals have a sweet deal.
King Harold, Henry VII, Charles I, Princess Louise… Even Andrew’s got his own pub sign tenaciously hanging on in Fitzrovia.
As for prime ministerial pubs? Not so prolific.
The best-known London boozer named after a prime minister is the glorious Churchill Arms in Kensington — an Anglophile’s wet dream, draped in miles of bunting and piles of Churchillian clutter, with the bulldog-faced PM gurning from a sign out front. (Actually, the Churchill Arms is so named, because Winnie’s grandparents used to drink here.)
It’s the kind of jolly, Union Flag-fluttering establishment that the incumbent prime minster* — who we know is fond of after-work drinks — would love named in his honour. His version would be plastered with photos of him dangling from zip-wires, and trying to lift beer kegs aloft for no apparent reason.
There are a handful of other pubs that brandish the faces of prime ministers: The Gladstone Arms in Borough is a great live music pub, which in 2017, swerved the ignominious fate of being rebranded Pegz N “Frazes”. (Queen Victoria would have been amused, as she couldn’t bear the mutton-chopped PM.)
A few Duke of Wellingtons are scattered about. There’s a handful of Palmerstones and Salisburys. New Cross is home to a Walpole, named after the very first prime minister. There’s even a lone Henry Addington. (Nope, us neither.)
Maybe the most interesting tribute is found at Denmark Hill, at a bright blue fronted boozer called the George Canning. Like Addington, Canning is a name that resides firmly in the ‘who he?’ category.
Well, he was a Tory politician and anti-slavery campaigner, who became the 23rd British prime minster in 1827. Sadly, 1827 was also Canning’s last year in office. Not a well man, he died just 119 days later, making him the shortest-serving prime minster — an unenviable record he holds to this day.
The tributes don’t end there; London has a Canning Club, Canning House and Canning Circus — all named in homage to the prime minister. There’s also a statue of him in Parliament Square. (Canning Town, however, is named for another Canning, Charles.)
Maybe that’ll give some hope to the current prime minster**, who, after all has thrashed that 119 day record with almost two and a half years in the hot seat. Otherwise, he’ll have to make do with being remembered by the much-blighted ‘Boris Buses’, as some continue to insist on calling them. Although, as with Johnson, there are no plans to extend their tenure either.
*To be updated accordingly
**Again, we’re keeping an eye on this
