Inn is out as locals favour Bar and Tap for new pub names
Inn is out. Bar, on the other hand, is very much in. Traditional pub names are on the decline, a reflection of the problems facing licensees and the success of the craft brewing boom.
Data from the Food Standards Agency shows there were 103 fewer licensed establishments with “Inn” in the name in 2022 compared with 2020 – the biggest faller. “Arms” was also down by 49, while “Bar” was up by 119 and “Tap” up by 48.
Analysis of more than 51,000 licences over the two-year period, collected by GetTheData.com, an open source data website, reveals that words associated with traditional names were most on the decline: Royal, Crown, Lord, Prince, Greyhound, Horse, Coach and Duke.
A few traditional names are bucking the trend. Red Lion has been the most popular pub name for generations, and 11 were added to the list this year to make 500. Plough, Head and Cock have also risen.
But the decline in Royal Oaks and Coach and Horses is the result of traditional pubs shutting down while craft brewers’ taprooms are on the rise, according to James Watson, pub protection adviser for the Campaign for Pubs.
“We stopped building new pubs in any significant number in the 1970s,” he said. “The new premises tend to be former shops or industrial premises that can be converted – the micropubs that started in Kent about 20 years ago in old butchers’ shops and bakers. No one is setting up a micropub selling craft beer and calling it The Royal Oak.”
Britain had about 55,000 pubs in the 1980s, according to the Campaign for Real Ale, but that figure has fallen to 47,500.
The village pub is often empty because the villages have become dormitories for commuters. In southern towns and cities, there is more money to be made from turning a pub into apartments than
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