h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If this is a pub in Worcester you're referring to, I believe it's actually The Swan with Two Nicks - don't ask me to explain what that means.

Further observation: as regards London, the more outlandish and inexplicable the pub name, the more likely it is to be a) in Fulham, b) full of Sloanes and c) a good place to play Sloane Bingo.

"The Swan with two Necks" is a clear example of what happens when you build a pub next to a nuclear power station.

I found all the pub names in the entry by idly flicking through The Good Pub Guide; "armchair drinking", I suppose you could say. The Swan With Two Necks is a real name, unlikely though it sounds; I suppose it could refer to the way swans get to know each other before getting to know each other even better, and how during this, er, necking the two swans look like a single swan with two necks.

Or it might just be another drunken invention...

Mark

The "Swan with two Necks" is a corruption of the "swan with two Nicks" referring to the way in which Swans were identified by marking their beaks with nicks. All Swan are owned by the Crown. Worcester was a hot bed of Royalist/Roundhead conflict. A pub identified as "Swna with two Nicks" clearly identifies it a having Royalist sympathies and a safe place for Royalists to drink. Charles hid in a room close to the pub when being pursued by Roundheads after the battle of Worcester.

Indeed so. I remember watching the re-enactment out of some first-floor pub window. Can't remember which pub now, offhand. Might have been the aforementioned Swan. Not to be confused with the Swan in St John's (also in Worcester), which as I recall was a pub frequented by nasty rock aficionados, although it was next door to erstwhile indie/goth nightclub Picassos, where I once got so drunk I couldn't find the stairs.