Tonight I have to go to the Planning Committee, where one of the cases is the former White Hart pub in Church End. I doubt whether that is the traditional name for the pub. The "White Hart" is said to have originally indicated a link to Richard II, whose symbol it was. Indeed, if you go to the National Gallery, you can see the White Hart symbol in the Wilton Diptych, the earliest known portrait of an English Monarch.
But I cannot imagine that there is any actual connection between the Church End White Hart pub and Richard II. Here in Brent, the pubs change their name too often for that. For example, a few years ago No. 8 in Willesden High Road was known as Ned Kelly's. Before that it had one of my favourite pub names: The Case is Altered.
The story behind The Case is Altered as a pub name is that during the Pennisular War, the Middlesex regiment spent a long time quartered at La Casa Alta. when the soldiers demobbed they started up pubs with a corruption of the old headquarters name. Too nice a story to be true.
The only pubs I know of in Brent to have retained their old names are the Spotted Dog pubs, one in Neasden and one in Willesden. Sadly, they are both now closed.
2 comments:
I have one more potential explanation for the pub name, The Case Is Altered.
After Henry VIII romantic entanglements forced him to break with the Catholic church, catholics began worshiping in secret. Sometimes mass was said in pubs which were then allegedly called Casey's Altars.
There are differing explanations behind the origins of most pub names. It's not an exact science. But it's fun deciding which one you prefer over a pint!
Hope you manage to retain your share of pubs in your area - whatever they're called.
Elaine Saunders
Author – A Book About Pub Names
It’s A Book About….blog
I lived in Willesden from a very young age when my parents migrated from Northumberland. When I became old enough to drink I used to go into The Crown Pub which was just around the corner from The Case Is Altered. It was where I met my wife, who worked behind the bar. She had been recruited in Ireland and had come to England under the auspices of the Emerald Employment Agency. She had actually given her sister's name and adopted her identity as she was only sixteen so I got to know her as Brenda when her real name was Eleanor. She also worked at The Case Is Altered for a short time. We got to know many amusing and funny Irish Drinkers who were very protective of my wife "her being in a strange country and all" We had some fantastic times together and many wonderful memories of those two pubs in Willesden High Road.
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