While walking around St Petersburg in Russia we took the canal-side road between Nevskiy Prospekt, the main shopping street running through the heart of St Petersburg, and the spectacular, multicoloured Cathedral of the Resurrection. The Cathedral is one of the most popular tourist sites in St Petersburg. Our attention was drawn to the unusual site of a triangular sail on a building. On closer examination it had written beneath the sail James Cook and Pub & Cafe. On the sail was a logo with the same wording and a figure in an 18th century costume.

While we couldn't see the pub, the sign indicated a passageway beside a large apartment block. Retracing our steps back towards Nevskiy Prospekt we took the first turn right, then turned right again along the other side of the apartment block. The James Cook pub was at the end of the road, straight in front of us, but unfortunately it was closed. Tucked away in the side street it would remain virtually unknown to tourists. The sail sign in this tourist street will surely attract more customers to the pub.

I could understand St Petersburg having an inn commemorating the Russian Fabian Gottlieb Bellingshausen who is credited with leading the expedition that first sighted Antarctica.

Why is there a bar commemorating Yorkshire's greatest navigator?

Malcolm Boyes

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 19, volume 31, number 3 (2008).