British pubs are renowned for their weird and wonderful names – from the Drunken Duck to the Cat Custard Pot.
But sometimes pub names that have existed for generations, or even centuries, can cause controversy – leaving owners at the centre of social media storms, petitions or targeted campaigns of abuse.
The Saracen’s Head Inn in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, hit the headlines this week with convicted terrorist Khalid Baqa taking the pub to court over its sign depicting a brown-skinned man of Arab or Turkish descent.
Mr Baqa says that the sign ‘instilled worry and fear in me since it was clearly xenophobic, racist and inciting violence to certain people.’
Having previously spent four years behind bars for preparing Jihadi propaganda, he now wants more than £1,000 from the Saracen’s Head.
The pub’s landlord Robbie Hayes is refusing to change the name, telling The Sun: ‘It’s a complete joke. This has been called The Saracen’s Head for 500 years’
But the Saracen’s Head is far from the only British pub to run into trouble over its unusual name.
The following are only a few of the drinking spots that people have attempted to cancel or that were forced to change their name.
The Midget
Only last week The Midget pub in Abingdon reopened its doors as the Roaring Raindrop after a swirl of controversy around its name.
Owners Greene King say the watering hole, which opened as ‘The Magic Midget’ in 1974, took its original name from the classic MG Midget sports car which was manufactured in the Oxfordshire town.
But the name was labelled ‘disablist hate speech’ by Dr Erin Pritchard, a disabilities studies lecturer at Liverpool Hope University, who started a petition that gathered more than 1,300 signatures.
Dr Pritchard, who herself has dwarfism and previously campaigned for Marks and Spencer to rename their Midget Gem sweets to Mini Gems, said that she and other people with dwarfism regard the original name as a ‘derogatory slur’ and find it ‘offensive’.
Writing on her petition, Dr Pritchard said: ‘Midget is a derogatory word used towards people with dwarfism. It is a term derived from the word ‘midge’ meaning Gnat or Sand-fly, which is dehumanising.
‘It was a term popularised during the Victorian freak show, but unfortunately continues to be used as a form of hate speech towards people with dwarfism.
‘People with dwarfism, including children with the condition experience name calling on a daily basis. They have experienced this word being shouted at them.’
She added: ‘Whilst Greene King claims that the pub is named after the MG Midget car, the phasing does not reflect this, especially whilst it omits “MG”.’
Read More: The British pubs that have been cancelled
