UPDATE (Mar 2023): The pub has now undergone a major refit, during which the pub sign was taken down. Pity.
A pair of familiar faces gaze over the beer garden of one Waterloo boozer.
None other than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex adorn the hanging sign. They've been in residence since the royal wedding of 2018, keeping guard over the namesake Duke of Sussex pub.
The hand-painted sign, created by artist Paul Karslake, isn't that well-known. It's not easily visible. Only the reverse can be seen from the road, and that shows a predecessor Sussex. You have to walk along the pedestrian passage beside Waterloo Millennium Green to see the royal couple.
It's a highly unusual pub sign in that living people are rarely depicted on such a canvas. The only other example we can think of in London is the likeness of Harry's uncle Prince Andrew, who continues to swing at Fitzrovia's Duke of York pub, despite those well-aired allegations.
A previous second example depicted Tim Martin — controversial proprietor of the Wetherspoon chain — on the Lord Moon of the Mall pub. That sign's now gone after the Whitehall venue got taken over by another chain. Meanwhile, Olivia Colman briefly presided over The Old Crown on New Oxford Street as part of a promotion for The Crown TV series.
