Wednesday 21 May 2008

The Freak and London




It's been a couple of months I have been in London and the city never fails to intrigue me. I have always encountered plethora of things around which have always fascinated me and have kept me wanting to discover it more and more every time I step out for my exploration trips. The people, the cars, the culture, musicians playing on the underground, the sky, fashion haunts, parks, the Thames, everything has its own charisma.

Pubs are a great part of the London culture. They are ubiquitous and people throng them for a drink after work, even if there is no place for an ant to go around. Yet you will find them standing out, most of them swelling on the roads with a large pint of beer, having garrulous conversations. Another interesting thing I noticed about the pubs here are the conspicuous names they adorn. The first pub I encountered with a quite uncanny name was at my project party." Slug and lettuce" it read. I might be quite ignorant then and assumed it must have been a very popular delicacy ravished all around in pubs, hence the name.

However the next time I encountered "Dog and Bulls", I realized I was definitely wrong, much to my own chagrin. And what followed was a myriad string of pubs with weird names. "Rat and Parrot" ,"Anchor and Hope". Out of sheer curiosity, I went online and hit the search engine for more pubs in London and found more absurd names. Rose and Crown,Lamb and Flag, King and Tinker,Hand and Shears(Don't want to even get knowing that one),Fox and Pheasants,Dog and Duck,Rat and Parrot, Coach and Horses (err.. Stables would have sounded more profound!), And yet another bunch like"I am the Only Running Footman" (Really?), The King's Arm, The Market Porter...and so on..

I must admit the names were pretty unusual and definitely got me ticking on their origin. However I plan to keep it as my next hobby and hopefully should find some answers. As for now, there's a new pub just around the block.....:)..waiting for me to be explored..!!