Most Royal Regions in the UK
Making up a large and significant part of the UK’s history, it’s no surprise that we see royalty everywhere we turn. With regal names peppering pub and street signs, castles of royal residence scattering across our landscapes and even whole areas being honoured with royal titles, we wanted to find out the most royal region of them all.
To crown the winner, we conducted desk research to find the total number of royal named hospitals, pubs, streets and theatres as well as figures for royal municipalities and castles. To ensure fairness, the figures were calculated on a per capita basis.
To find the most royal region overall, we factored in all the categories and created a weighted rank. Taking the crown as the most royal region in the UK is the South West. With an overall score of 58/100, the South West boasts an impressive 277 royal street names, 71 royal pubs and has the highest number of royal towns, cities and parishes of all regions in the UK at 18.
Sweeping in at second is Scotland. With the highest number of royal hospitals on our list, Scotland was bound to score highly. But it’s no surprise that second place has been secured, thanks to the eye popping 612 castles found here – more than all other regions combined.
In third place we have the West Midlands with a score of 47/100. This strong score securing third place can be attributed to the 242 royal street names found here, the 69 royal pubs and the 46 castles still standing strong.
With so many pubs with royal name connotations throughout the UK, we chose to focus on those which specifically used the word ‘royal’. The South East tops the list with 100 pubs, whilst the South West comes in with a strong 71 to match its southern brethren.
Although royal pub names have always existed, their popularity soared in 1393 when King Richard II passed an act making it compulsory for public houses and inns to have a sign outside identifying themselves. Though some pubs chose to focus on specific Kings, Queens, Dukes and Lords, many others chose other royal related names such as “The Crown” to ensure they could pledge support to the current reigning monarch without always needing to change their name if the monarch were to die
1.
[1] https://www.joseph-holt.com/news/history-of-pub names#:~:text=Pub%20names%20are%20believed%20to,was%20wine%20being%20sold%20inside. 
Scotland comes out top again with 24 royal named hospitals followed by London with 19 and the South West with 10. In total we counted 105 Royal named hospitals across all the regions of the UK.
The reason hospitals are given royal names today has more to do with continuing tradition than a royal-backed sponsor or royal involvement, as you may assume. However, some royally named hospitals did receive a royal charter at some point in their history such as The Royal London Hospital in 1990 by our current Queen and The Royal Free Hospital in 1837 by Queen Victoria.
With 2,843 royal street names in the UK, you’re never too far from royalty. The North West comes in first with a whopping 375 royal street names, followed by the South East in second with 353.
It turns out that sharing your street name with a royal could increase the value of your property! For example, research has found that street named after Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth could add a possible £13,590
2 to the value of homes located on it.
[2] https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/blog/can-a-royal-name-increase-house-value/ 
Theatres have been around for hundreds of years and are often visited by royals and public figures. It may not come as a surprise that the capital of England is home to the most royal named theatres at 16.
Found in London, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane has been a site for entertainment since 1663 and is the world’s oldest theatre site in continuous use. It has also been visited by every reigning monarch since the Restoration and continues to be a hotspot for important figures to this day
3 .
[3] https://lwtheatres.co.uk/theatres/theatre-royal-drury-lane/about-theatre-royal-drury-lane/ 
It's no surprise that Scotland is at the top of this list with 612 castles, more than any other region of the UK combined. The Scottish landscape is dotted with castles and a rich history at almost every turn, such as the great Edinburgh Castle, which has been a royal castle since the reign of David I in the 12th century and continued to be a royal residence until 1633
4.
The purpose of castles started off as defense with their incredibly thick walls and encompassing structures, serving to protect royalty and military leaders. However, as weaponry and the rules of battle have changed over the years, castles started to be seen as symbols of status and wealth. Nowadays, their use is often administrative centers for local governments or homes for lords and ladies.
[4] https://www.scottscastles.com/blog/castles-in-scotland/#:~:text=The%20Scottish%20landscape%20is%20dotted,as%20castle%20stays%20in%20Scotland. 
The South West comes in top with 18 royally named towns, cities and parishes beating out every other region by a landslide.
One example is ‘Royal Wootton Bassett’ in Wiltshire, which was granted the royal title by the Queen in 2011. The town received this title after its people lined the streets to honour fallen service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The title is symbolic of the nation's gratitude for their demonstrations of respect and mourning.
So how does an area get bestowed with the ‘Royal’ title? Well, it's the reigning monarch who has the final say on who gets such an honor. Petitions to put various cities, towns and boroughs forward to earn the title can also come directly from the prime minister or are made through the Cabinet Office.
Fancy a royal day out? Come and visit one of our London hotels, such as Tower Bridge or St Pauls, and spend a few hours taking in all the sights that royalty has to offer.
Data methodology:We conducted desk research to find the total number of royal theatres, hospitals, castles etc. 'Royal' was defined as including either 'royal' or some other royal-esque term in its title (i.e. 'Princess', 'Prince'). Only pubs with 'royal' somewhere in its title were included in the pubs category. Attempts were made to exclude castle ruins - and to only include preserved, 'substantial' castles but these figures may not be entirely accurate.
These figures calculated on a per capita basis (per 100k of each region's estimated population as of mid-2020) to ensure fairness - and inputted into a weighted rank.
-Each category is scored out of 14.3 (7 categories/100 = 14.3)
