The AI Horse and Other Pub Signs of the Times
An exhibition by Chris exploring how contemporary culture could be reimagined as pub signs, on show at the Shirkers Rest in September 2026.
For 100’s of years pubs have been named after places, jobs, objects, wildlife and people. Many of these names are familiar, even if we don’t understand their original context or significance as culture and society have evolved.
In the last 20 years many more pubs have closed than opened, and this disparity has meant than far fewer new pub names are thought about or given (with the pub where this exhibition is being held, a rare exception).
This exhibition imagines how we might name pubs if they were opened more regularly as they were historically, and named them after the things that reflect our society and culture. These names are then illustrated and given a typographic identity to create a series of imagined contemporary pub signs.
The exhibition will be upstairs at The Shirkers Rest, 9 Lewisham Way, London, SE14 6PP
Open Friday 18th to Wednesday 30th Sept:
Mon, Tue, Wed - 3:00 - 11:30 pm
Thurs & Fri - 3:00 pm - Midnight
Sat - 1:00pm - Midnight
Sun - 1:00 - 10:30 pm
The Shirkers Rest normally has a variety of pub-based artwork and images on display, some of which were moved for this exhibition. However, some of these items are important to the history of the pub, so they are not moved for temporary exhibitions and events, and these have been worked into this display as they add context to the ideas of pub culture as part of the installation of the exhibition.
This project has also been developed using some books which catalogue and record existing U.K pub names and their history, including Green Men & White Swans: The Folklore of British Pub Names by Jacqueline Simpson and Wordsworth Reference collection Dictionary of Pub Names, which helped to understand the history and nature of naming pubs over the last 800 years.
This project was also probably subconsciously inspired by the collection of hand painted developmental pub signs which are on display at the Trafalgar Tavern toilets. This collection includes many proposed pub signs which we guess were rejected for being too unusual in imagery or composition, but they are an amazing record of how these signs were considered and developed.
All the signs in the exhibition have been drawn using a process using illustrator and photoshop which has developed from Chris’ original handmade drawings for the Famous Sights of London range of products using fine line pens and chinagraph pencils. These processes then evolved to make many more drawings which were editable for our Tate commission in 2025, and have now evolved further to use colour. A special 4 of the sign drawings have also been given metallic screen-printed titles.
