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Ye Olde Mad-Lib Pub Crawl Generator If you’re looking to knock back a pint in the UK, there’s a good chance you’ll wander into a watering hole named the Red Lion — the the UK’s most popular pub name. And if you were looking to take in a pint at each Red Lion, well good luck, there are 339 and that’s one hell of a pub crawl. But here at The Pudding, we’re up for the challenge. (Note: if you really want to test fate, try this crawl of every single pub in the UK.) We gathered pub names from Pubs Galore, the largest crowdsourced list of pubs in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and plotted the shortest route between pubs of the same name. That means 339 pints at Red Lions, or 258 pints at Royal Oaks, or 176 pints at Crown Inns — the three most common pub names. And, these names follow pretty familiar naming patterns: color+noun, royalty+noun, or noun+inn. (We’ll also look at another common pattern noun&noun.) Of course some pubs stray from these patterns (we’re looking at you The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn), so let’s just limit it to the more common ones for our madlib pub crawl:

color + noun ( unique pub names) Red Lion Name No. See all royalty + noun ( unique pub names) Royal Oak Name No. See all noun + inn ( unique pub names) Crown Inn Name No. See all noun & noun ( unique pub names) Fox & Hounds Name No. See all Pub name lore can be traced back to the first century AD when the Roman Empire stretched to Great Britain. Tabernae, the precursors to taverns, would hang vine leaves outside inns where wine was sold. But during the Roman invasion, hard-to-find vine leaves were swapped for bushes, giving rise to names like The Bush Inn or The Bull & Bush. This tradition of naming pubs after what hung above their doors continued into the Middle Ages where watering holes would display distinct objects like ploughs (The Plough Inn) or wheatsheafs (The Wheatsheaf) to attract patrons — many of whom were illiterate and needed the pictorial cues. In 1393 an act was passed that required pubs and inns to have signs identifying themselves as official watering holes and many began to adopt names to honor the monarchy: The White Hart (the badge of King Richard II), The Red Lion (King James I’s red lion of Scotland), and The Royal Oak (a symbol of then Prince Charles’ defiance during the English Civil War). Now that you’ve got the backstory, let’s drink to that. Select a naming pattern below, then filter by name to generate a map and itinerary for your pub crawl.

Pick a pattern Color+Noun Royality+Noun Noun+Inn Noun&Noun Pick a pub There are 339 pubs named Red Lion on your pub crawl. Your crawl is miles/ kilometers long. There goes your liver!

Your itinerary No. Name Address See all