My dad was brought up in Cambridge and from the age of four until he left home to get married he lived in a pub with his parents and brothers and sisters. The pub was the Portland Arms, and in a previous life it had been The Scales Hotel, named after the brewing family.
I’ve always been fascinated by names, names of people, names of places, names of pubs, and after having a chat with an elderly uncle I looked up some old pubs which no longer exist in Cambridge… I am sure since this list was made more pubs have closed.I know thins change, all things change, but the English pub is so much part of our heritage and culture that I think every time one is closed or pulled down or turned into something else, a little bit of local history dies. So much can be learned from the names of pubs in particular areas; they reflect the people and industries, trades and occupations which were important, events and local legends, myths and stories, local people, local funiosities…
So in Cambridge, in bygone times, there were many, many pubs named after animals, partly reflecting the local agricultural traditions, but some telling different stories; the Horse and Jockey and the Racehorse for instance might reflect the races at nearby Newmarket. here then is a list of some of the pubs which bore the names of animals and birds:
The colour white features, the White Bear, the White Hart and the White Horse, but there was also a Black Swan There were plenty of horses featured, as there were plenty of horses around in the olden days,the Horse & Gate, the Horse & Groom, the already mentioned Horse & Jockey and Racehorse, the Old Nags Head and the Yorkshire Grey. There were plenty of dogs, the Dog & Duck and three Dog & Pheasants, the Greyhound. Farm animals appeared on the pub signs too, the Cock, the Cow & Calf, the Spotted Cow, The Durham Ox, and the Lamb.
Being a country area, despite Cambridge actually being a city, country activities are reflected in the two Bird Bolt Inns, Bee Hive, two pubs called the Eagle and another called the Falcon, Pike & Eel, Rabbit, and being on a river with a lot of swans, there are plenty of pubs named after the elegant birds, three Swans, and one called the Two Swans. Small animals appear too, including the Grasshopper.
There is room for the exotic, the Oyster Tavern, the Tiger , the Unicorn, and the Zebra. I suppose I am most pleased to see there was a pub called the Dolphin, as that is the name of our local!
Lois Elsden 
I used to be a frequent guest at the Portland Arms many, many years ago. My Cambridge friends had a printing factory on Milton Road, only a couple of minutes from The Portland Arms so we often went there for a lunch and a drink. I was horrified when I made a revisit 2 years ago; Klausbernd and I stayed at a Guest House not far away and I suggested to try it out for supper – which we didn’t. The old atmosphere was all gone, so sad to see. Well, time goes by … 😉
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How amazing, Dina! What a coincidence! When my grandparents took the pub it was the old Scales Hotel; the brewery wanted to rebuild it as a ‘modern’ pub but in order to keep the license they had to keep open; they knocked down half of the pub while the family lived in the other half and kept it open, then they moved into the new part, and the last part was taken down and the new building completed!
How amazing that you and Klausbernd used to go in there! I was too young to go in when we lived in Cambridge and by then my grandparents no longer had it, however, when it was an important birthday for me a couple of years ago that’s where we had my party!
I’m sorry it has lost its atmosphere… maybe if you visit again it will have changed again and be back to being a nice place to go.
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As I recall, the back bar of the Cambridge Arms (RIP) on King Street was called the Scales Bar. I’m guessing that there’s a connection…
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That’s interesting… I bet at one time it had beer from the Scales Brewery… you’ve set me on a quest to find out!
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Beat you to it 😉 Pints and Pubs says:
“In 1866 George Scales founded the Cambridge Brewery behind what is now d’Arry’s restaurant, opposite the Cambridge Brew house. Much of the former Cambridge Brewery buildings and memorabilia remained until the late 1990s”
So it sounds like the back bar of the Cambridge Arms was the old Scales Brewery.
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Well done!! I knew George Scales was the originally founder… and I think I knew he was a Cambridge man, but I didn’t realise where the brewery was! I’m guessing that at one time he maybe held the license to the Portland, as it was called the Scales Hotel… but I think the original name had been the Portland… Fascinating isn’t it!!!
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Just found a blog I wrote ages ago: http://loiselden.com/2012/11/17/from-the-scales-hotel-to-the-portland-arms/
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