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Bryant Lillywhite's London Coffee Houses, lists a number of these with names such as Blackamoor, Blackmoor, Blackmoor's head, Black Boy etc. There are references to the Black Boy Coffee House in Ave Maria Lane from 1687. Lillywhite suggests that "Designers and writers of Sign-boards, as well as painters were employed to produce something new. The Sign of the 'Blackamoor'... etc, are all variations of this advertising medium. A house was then known by its Sign, and a live black-boy was an additional attraction. Such boys are known to have attached themselves to ships coming from the West Indies and it is highly probable on reaching London, they found ready employment and elected to remain of their own free will." Hazel Petrie ________________________________ From: The Black and Asian Studies Association [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marika Sherwood [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, 15 September 2008 7:04 p.m. To: [log in to unmask] Subject: 'Black Boy' pubs Has anyone done any research on why we have so many pubs with this name? I have been sent an article on a pub by that name in St.Mary Cray. Suggests that referred the name referred to meeting places for loyalist royalists during the Cromwell era – describes Charles II as having ‘Spanish ancestry, and as a consequence had very black hir and olive skin. His mother referred to him as ‘the black boy’ in a letter written when he was a toddler, and the name stuck’. Marika