The Naked Tailor

This is a door-lintel from Lancaster’s Chancery Lane. The original building was demolished and a multiplex cinema constructed in its place. It belonged to the Naked Tailor Inn, shown on the Towneley Hall Map in 1684. In 1683 it was owned by John Simkin or Simkinson, hence there is a faint "S" above and the left hand 'I'. The other 'I' should indicate his wife (perhaps Jane, since I and J were interchangeable).

The Naked Tailor is a rather excellent name for a tavern, the loss of which we lovers of traditional pub names might lament. That one could make clothes for others but not, it would seem, for oneself, is a rather amusing irony. Whether this was for want of funds, or some moral impropriety, we can only guess. One who makes clothes for others, however, should find sufficient cloth and thread to cover himself. The Lord Jesus asks in Matthew 7:3:

And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

May we look to our own affairs before we meddle in others’; may we sort our own houses before offering instruction to those who do not seek it.