by Trevor Bevins, Local Democracy Reporting Service.
WEYMOUTH’S Golden Lion pub is to change its name – to The Tin Cat.
Listed building and advertising consent is being sought for the change to the St Edmund Street hostelry, which includes a re-paint.
Public comments remain open on the proposals from pub chain Greene King until the first week in March.
The applications to Dorset Council includes changes to all the signage and lighting on the Grade 2 listed building, which dates from the late 18th century, although an earlier inn was on the site almost a century prior to that.
The company say the existing signs have been in place for many years and have become weathered and faded. It says the change of name and re-painting, in white, “has taken into consideration both the heritage of the building and the new vibrant change to its clientele.”
In a statement with the planning application the company told Dorset Council planners: “The inn’s location, just a stone’s throw from Weymouth Harbour, was no accident. In an era when most goods and people moved by sea, proximity to the docks was essential for any establishment hoping to capture the lucrative trade of visiting merchants and ship crews. The original Golden Lion would have been a rough-and-ready tavern, its rooms filled with the sounds of different languages and the salt-stained clothing of men who made their living from the sea.”
Changing pub names can be a tricky business.
Last year’s decision to rename the Silent Woman near Wareham as The Angel led to complaints about the loss of the name with the owners, Hall and Woodhouse, accused by some of being ‘too woke’.
In Dorchester Marstons changed the name of the Trumpet Major several years ago to The Original Thomas Hardy, only to change it back again a year later after locals continued to call it by its original name and visitors had trouble finding it to book a table.
The Tin Cat application can be seen on the council’s website using the reference – P/LBC/2026/00600
