This pub was the Rose and Crown for most of the 90s but when we stated out in
Canterbury's pubs, and that's what it's called now. In between, though, it's had
many other names, but we don't think it's actually changed much as it's such an
old building. Having said that, we didn't actually visit when it was the Rose
and Crown first time around. Our first visit was when it was the Tap & Spile,
but we don’t really remember much about it - not helpful we know. If you can
shed any light on what this was like in the 90s (or earlier!) let us know.
Tap & Spile was a
nationwide chain, and in fact other pub websites still list a few of them,
mostly in the North and Midlands. Seems to be a chain of real ale boozers.
The changes when it was renamed the Blind Dog were fairly
cosmetic.
The Blind Dog at St Dunstans was named after the
album "The Blind Dog at St Dunstans" by a local band called Caravan in the 70s,
and the pub sign was a copy of the album sleeve (look it up on eBay – there’s
usually one on sale). It was an attempt at appealing to a more youthful market,
until it inexplicably closed with a new Blind Dog simultaneously opening in
place of the Cardinal's Cap the other side of the city – the pub sign featured
inside the new Blind Dog for a while.
The Unity replaced the Blind Dog at St Dunstans in this mysterious pub-triangle,
although it wasn’t much of a departure from its previous guise, but the target
audience was firmly Canterbury’s student base (we wondered whether the name was
a reference to ‘Uni’), with a DJ during term time. The pub was part of the
Brighton-based ‘Zel’ student pub chain (or 'Connective' as they put it, whatever
that means).
It’s now the Swan at
St Dunstans (the full name seems to be a nod to the Blind Dog incarnation, but
that may not be the case), and still wasn’t all that different to how it was as
the Blind Dog, except the it wasn't so student-centric. We did found out why it
was renamed the Swan, despite it's not really being near the river, but can't
actually remember - something about the landlady's whimsy we think. After a
decade or so it finally returned to its original name.
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