By the numbers
Pub central
Leeds, West Yorkshire has more pubs listed than anywhere else, 301 of them.
Stats and facts on British pubs
Publocation UK started in 2021 with 3,145 pubs in Greater London. Today we list 15,975 pubs across London and 16 English counties, plus 25 so far in Lincolnshire, and along the way we've counted a lot of Red Lions. Here's what our listings say about the great British pub, plus some of our favourite stories behind the names, the signs and the oldest pubs in the land.
At a glance
- 15,954 pubs listed
- 185 towns and suburbs with a pub
- 2,776 pubs in London, the most of any county
- 28 reviews by our members
Did you know?
What's in a name
Our most common pub name
The Red Lion is our most common pub name: 153 pubs are called the Red Lion, whether hotel, inn, tavern or bar. Next come the Royal Oak (135) and the Crown (132).
What's in a name
A right menagerie
2,047 pubs are named after animals. The Horse leads the pack, in 328 names, ahead of the Lion (325) and the Swan (178).
What's in a name
Colourful names
1,149 pub names have a colour in them. White is the favourite (330), then Red (228) and Black (201).
What's in a name
A royal touch
1,387 pubs have a royal touch to their names. Crown is the most popular (313), then Royal (239) and King (216).
What's in a name
Hotel, inn or tavern?
"Inn" is in 15% of our pub names, "Arms" in 8% and "Bar" in 6%. The rest go by other names.
What's in a name
Numbers on the sign
554 pub names have a number in them, like The Three Horseshoes and the All Bar One.
What's in a name
Alliteration is alive and well
What's in a name
Meet you on High Street
720 of our pubs are on a High Street, in 129 different places. Church Street is next, with 127.
What's in a name
The Red Lion rules
The Red Lion is the most common pub name on our list, and across the UK: a 2025 count found 517 Red Lions.
What's in a name
London's favourite pub names
In London, the Railway (19) just pips the Crown (18) and the Royal Oak (17), with the Kings Arms and Prince of Wales on 16 each, and the George on 15.
What's in a name
Up in arms
'Arms' appears in 1,240 pub names on our list. Kings Arms is the most common (75), and trade names like the Masons Arms (26), Carpenters Arms (22) and Blacksmiths Arms (21) often mark pubs where those trades used to meet.
What's in a name
I am the Walrus
Among all the Horses, Lions and Swans on our list, there are even four Walruses, one of them the Walrus & The Carpenter.
What's in a name
Three's company
'Three' appears in 157 pub names we list, led by the Three Horseshoes (31), Three Tuns (28) and Three Crowns (9). Many 'Three...' names, such as the Three Tuns, Three Horseshoes and Three Compasses, come from the coats of arms of London's livery companies.
What's in a name
Jolly good
80 pubs on our list are Jolly something. Jolly Sailors and Jolly Farmers lead the way, followed by Jolly Carters, Gardeners, Millers and Potters.
What's in a name
Ye Olde everything
74 pubs we list still go by Ye Olde (or Ye Old), from Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham to Ye Olde Starre Inne in York.
What's in a name
Names to make you smile
Drop in at the Bag O Nails in Westminster, Nobody Asked Me in Hackney, the Bar With No Name in Islington or The Who'd A Thought It in Greenwich. Outside London there's the Nobody Inn in Devon and the Pub With No Name in Hampshire.
What's in a name
Why so many Royal Oaks?
The Royal Oak remembers the oak tree at Boscobel where the future Charles II hid after losing the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
What's in a name
The Marquis of Granby
The Marquess of Granby is said to have set up old soldiers from his regiment as publicans, and many of their pubs were named after him. Ten pubs on our list still are.
Record breakers
A mouthful, and a quick one
Our longest pub name is the Jane Eyre Cocktail Bar at Escape to Freight Island in Manchester, Greater Manchester, at 50 characters. The shortest is the Bod in Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire.
Record breakers
Our busiest pub street
High Street in Bromley, London has 27 pubs, more than any other street.
Record breakers
The ends of the earth
Our furthest flung pubs: The Bridge Inn in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear is furthest north, the Pigs Nose Inn in South Hams, Devon furthest south, the Harpers Wine Bar in Thanet, Kent furthest east and the Marisco Tavern in Torridge, Devon furthest west.
Record breakers
The happiest punters
Of all the counties, Hertfordshire's pubs get the best ratings from our members, 4.0 beers out of 5 on average.
Record breakers
Longest and shortest, a few doors apart
Stalybridge's Market Street has the Q Inn, one of Britain's shortest pub names, a few doors from the Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn, one of the longest.
Record breakers
A contender for London's oldest
The Seven Stars on Carey Street wears '1602' proudly on its front. Historians reckon the building is more like the 1680s, but it's still a serious contender for London's oldest pub.
Record breakers
Britain's smallest bar
The front snug at The Dove in Hammersmith, around 33 square feet, has been listed by Guinness as Britain's smallest public bar. 'Rule, Britannia!' may have been written upstairs.
Record breakers
Britain's highest pub
The Tan Hill Inn in North Yorkshire, 528 m (1,732 ft) up, is Britain's highest pub. During Storm Arwen in 2021, 61 people were snowed in there for the weekend, including an Oasis tribute band.
Record breakers
Britain's oldest pub? Take your pick
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham claims 1189, Ye Olde Fighting Cocks in St Albans claims 793 AD (it held the Guinness record until it was withdrawn in 2000), and the Bingley Arms in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, traces its story to the 900s. None of the dates can be proved.
History and yarns
Orwell's Moon Under Water
In 1946 George Orwell described his perfect pub, the Moon Under Water, in the Evening Standard, then admitted it didn't exist. Seven pubs on our list now carry the name.
History and yarns
Small but mighty
The Rake, tucked behind Borough Market, is so small it's often called London's tiniest pub, though the owners have never claimed the title themselves.
History and yarns
Mind the pub
Five London Underground stations are named after pubs: Royal Oak, Angel, Elephant & Castle, Swiss Cottage and Manor House. Count Maida Vale, named after the Hero of Maida inn, and it's six.
History and yarns
Why pubs have signs
In 1393 Richard II ordered anyone brewing ale to sell to hang out a sign or forfeit their ale. With most drinkers unable to read, a picture worked better than a name.
History and yarns
Orwell's local
George Orwell was a regular at the Dog and Duck in Soho. When Animal Farm was picked by America's Book of the Month Club he celebrated there with absinthe, and the upstairs bar now carries his name.
History and yarns
Tudor or older at Foots Cray
The timber-framed Seven Stars at Foots Cray in Bexley is listed as probably 16th century or earlier, and parts of it are said to be 600 years old.
History and yarns
London's last galleried coaching inn
The George Inn on Borough High Street is the only surviving galleried coaching inn in London. Rebuilt after a fire swept Southwark in 1676, it has belonged to the National Trust since 1937 and gets a mention in Dickens' Little Dorrit.
History and yarns
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
There's been a pub at 145 Fleet Street since 1538, rebuilt around 1667 after the Great Fire. Dickens, Chesterton and Twain drank here, and Polly the parrot, who died in 1926, is still on display, stuffed.
History and yarns
Built for Wren's masons
The Old Bell on Fleet Street is said to have been built for Christopher Wren's masons while they rebuilt St Bride's church after the Great Fire of 1666.
History and yarns
Call in while you can
The UK had 44,656 pubs in 2025, down from 46,829 in 2020. In the first nine months of 2026, 295 more closed for good, about one a day.
History and yarns
The pub that moved
Manchester's Old Wellington Inn dates from 1552. It was jacked up about 5 ft in 1971, then after the 1996 IRA bomb it was taken apart and rebuilt nearby as part of Shambles Square.
History and yarns
The earl's last stop
Bolton's Ye Olde Man and Scythe claims a history going back to 1251, and the building was rebuilt in 1636. The 7th Earl of Derby is said to have rested there before he was beheaded by the market cross outside in 1651, and the chair he reputedly sat in still carries a plate saying so.
History and yarns
75 years behind the bar
Mabel Mudge ran the Drewe Arms at Drewsteignton, Devon, for 75 years, from 1919 until she retired in 1994 aged 99, making her Britain's longest-serving licensee.
Top of the list
Pubs by county
- London 2,776
- Greater Manchester 1,293
- West Yorkshire 1,076
- Kent 1,066
- West Midlands 961
- North Yorkshire 954
- Hampshire 932
- Lancashire 873
- Devon 846
- Staffordshire 799
- Essex 771
- South Yorkshire 677
- Nottinghamshire 631
- Merseyside 624
- Tyne and Wear 570
- Hertfordshire 559
- Surrey 521
- Lincolnshire 25
Towns and suburbs with the most pubs
The most common pub names
- Red Lion 153
- Royal Oak 135
- Crown 132
- Plough 92
- Railway 91
- White Hart 88
- Ship 83
- Rose & Crown 83
- Swan 79
- White Horse 75
Facts marked "Live from our listings" are worked out from the pubs we list, so they change as our listings do.