The Royal Children Pub Sign - Castle Gate - Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Posted by: 
SMacB
N 52° 57.051 W 001° 09.091
30U E 624187 N 5868403
The Royal Children pub gets its curious name from the children of Princess Anne. In 1688, when King James II.’s throne was tottering to its fall, Anne, his daughter, fled away from his court and refuged herself in Nottingham.
Waymark Code: WMW8A3
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/23/2017
Views: 4
3D pub sign for The Royal Children on Castle Gate, Nottingham.
"The inn is said to be named after the children of Princess Anne, the daughter of King James II. When his reign was failing, Anne took refuge in Nottingham, arriving on 1 December 1688. The Princess with Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough and Lady Berkeley, attended by the Bishop of London Henry Crompton and the Earl of Dorset remained a few days in Nottingham. Tradition has it that her children were given refuge at the inn. However, her only child, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester wasn’t born until 8 months after her visit to Nottingham.
The earliest reference to the pub is in 1799 when the Nottingham Directory lists the landlord as John Clayton.
It became an inn tied to the Home Brewery Company, and in 1933-34 was rebuilt to the designs of Albert Edgar Eberlin.
For many years the sign hanging outside of the inn was a whale bone, but this has been moved inside to reduce deterioration."
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The royal children are said to have played with the children of the innkeeper. Although the story is considered highly improbable, the inn sign perpetuates the story by presenting two well-dressed, blonde-headed royal children (a boy and girl) together with a smaller, more ordinarily dressed girl.