Damask Rose Ceremony
From the collection of
From the collection of
At the Crown and Thistle pub in Leicester the rent has remained a very reasonable four pennies a year for over three hundred years.
In a very British tradition, the landlord of the Crown and Thistle pub on Loseby Lane in Leicester city centre presents the Lord Mayor of the city with a damask rose and four old pennies as a peppercorn rent. It's a tradition that had been going on since 1636, with the rose symbolising the Duchy of Lancaster. But it is good that the annual ceremony was captured on video in 1986; it was eventually discontinued towards the end of the century, around the time the old pub became part of the Irish themed bar chain O'Neills.
In a tradition stretching back to 1636, the landlord of Leicester's Crown and Thistle pub pays the lord mayor a peppercorn rent once a year, consisting of four pennies and a damask rose.