This page attempts to explain the significance and meaning behind the Albion Inn Sign. Research is augmented with photographs of pub signs.

Inn Signs

© Copyright. Images supplied by Digital Photographic Images

I found the first inn sign on display in the beer garden of the Albion Inn at Wall Heath. I wish more pubs would recycle their inn signs in this fashion.

Albion appears in a number of inn signs such as the Albion Inn or Albion Vaults or even Albion Shades. The word Albion is a poetic name for Great Britain and is thought to derive from the Latin 'Albus' or 'White.' This Roman term arose from the whiteness of the cliffs on Britain's southern coast and was almost certainly applied during the invasion and conquest of AD43.

This is the scene illustrated by many sign artists, and they generally display a Roman vessel heading towards the coast of Britain. However, sometimes the Albion inn sign follows the tradition of illustrating a ship of that name. There was a famous HMS Albion, a ninety gun frigate which was built in Cornwall.

The term Albion is famously remembered in the phrase 'perfidious Albion', which came into common use during the Napoleonic Wars though was first recorded in a poem of 1793 by Augustin, Marquis of Ximenez. In this work, it recommends attacking perfidious Albion at sea.

And now that I've told you all this I'm about to throw a spanner in the works by telling you that Aristotle used the word Albion long before the Romans when he was describing the island in the Atlantic ocean next to Hibernia [Ireland], both of which he reported as lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules [Strait of Gibraltar].
© Copyright. Images supplied by Digital Photographic Images.

Click here for a list of inn signs featured on the website, along with an overview of British pub signs.