Grinning Man

Based on the ' Bull and Mouth' Inn sign preserved at the Museum of London.
Plaque available exclusively from The Museum of London.

The naming of the hostelries and pubs of England is a curious example of the wit and wisdom of the common man in action.

The earliest enterprising peasants took to advertising their skills and trades by hanging apposite symbols of their office on a pole outside their abodes - providing the surreal prospect of shears, boots, hats and the like flapping in the fetid breeze which blew through your average medieval high street. The sign of the early alehouse was a hoop or garland of leaves or hops .

The early names of taverns derived from their early role - situated on thoroughfares they provided sustenance for pilgrims and travelling prelates - names were derived from suitable religious mottoes pertinent to the mind of the penitent traveller. However once upon the tongue of the common (and often inebriated) villain these became slurred and bastardised into something much more base and, appealing to the English sense of humour, more absurd. So it was that 'Le Quatre Fidelis' (The Four Faithful) evolved into 'The Cat and Fiddle' and 'God encompasseth all Mankind' was shortened to (the curiously diabolic) 'Goat'.

In due course (after the Reformation) more secular events became commemorated, while the same process of remoulding the original title continued.

'The Bull and Mouth' is a fine example of the 'common wit'.

In one of his many forays against France Henry VIII captured Boulogne and the acquisition of Boulogne harbour, or the 'Boulogne mouth', giving, as it did easy access to the rest of France and the appetising prospect of futile slaughter (a great passion of 'The Merrye Monarch') became a cause for celebration. In no time at all 'The Boulogne Mouth' became 'The Bull and Mouth'.

One establishment bearing this name stood in St. Martin's-le-Grand, in the City of London, until its demolition in 1888 and boasted a large and beautifully carved wooden sign, now preserved in The Museum of London. A magnificent horned prize Bull stands proudly above.. . a huge and grotesquely grinning face, stretched into an oval by a tooth-filled idiot-grinning mouth that would put the Cheshire Cat to shame.

These castings are designed, sculpted and manufactured in England, using resin-bonded marble, bronze and Cotswold stone. Modern moulding techniques faithfully reproduce the intricate and painstaking work of the sculptor whilst giving the appearance of real carved stone or sculpted terracotta. The resin sculptures are weatherproof, the plaques having a hole drilled in the back for easy hanging