The great name game and how our pubs keep reinventing themselves

At a time when traditionally named Preston city centre innsthe Blue Bell, Old Black Bull and Golden Cross are not serving ale and the Old Dog Inn, Balmoral and Tithebarn are derelict ruins I noticed while walking along Lancaster Road that two of the public houses have recently changed their names. A practice not unusual in the past-and, it seems, no less common today in an effort to portray a new image, writes Keith Johnson.

- Keith Johnson

The Black-A-Moor Head inn, dating from 1831, on the corner of the Old Vicarage Lane closed in October 2024 and after a refurbishment reopened last December as the Lancaster Gate. Its original name had long been the subject of debate with its connection to the North African black servants who worked in European households.

Likewise, the Stanley Arms, of circa 1853 origins, and originally owned by Lord Derby has also changed its name. According to its latest signage, the inn now wants to be known as Stanley & Co. For a period after 1935 it was known as the Knowsley Arms a title it kept until October 1972 when as a Matthew Brown house situated next to the new Guild Hall it was refurbished and the name Stanley Arms restored.

On the corner of Miller Arcade at the Lancaster Road side is the popular Baluga Bar opened in 2012 replacing the troubled Café Mañana. This public bar began life as the King's Arms when the arcade got up and running circa 1900. Known for a while as Hayhurst's Wine Store, it was to the town dwellers of the 1940s the 'Long Bar' when Thomas Long was pulling the pints.

Just across from Lancaster Road on Church Street now stands the Slug & Lettuce displaying its new title since 2021 as part of the Stonegate Pub Company. It was originally the Grey Horse, of 1805 origins with its thatched roof, and was later known as 'Addison's Wine Lodge' in the days of Mary Addison and beyond.