A major pub chain has been criticized for replacing its traditional signs with ‘bland corporate graphic design’ that ‘leaves them resembling them assets in a branding exercise’.
Young’s, which operates nearly 220 pubs in London and the south of England, has swapped pictorial signs for illustrations based around the first letter of each pub’s name.
For example, the Rose and Crown in Wimbledon Village in south-west London, which previously bore an image of Henry Tudor – the victor of the Wars of the Roses – now has a design based around the letter R.
Similarly, the nearby Alexandra in Wimbledon town center has seen its sign switch from a painting of the Danish princess after which it was named to a white ‘A’ on a blue background.
The Rose and Crown in Wimbledon village, with its new sign on the left and the old one on the right. Dating back to the 17th century, the former coaching inn – positioned on the edge of Wimbledon Common – was first leased by Young’s in 1832. The Victorian poet Algernon Swinburne was one famous regular
The Lamb is a small Victorian pub in Bloomsbury has also been fitted with a new sign.