There are several meanings behind the name of this pub. Foremost is that it is after the specially constructed boot of Lord Wellington, the Iron Duke. This boot was unlike modern wear, in that the top came up higher and formed protection over the knee. However, cut away behind. Another explanation is that it was for a 13th century priest, John Schorne, who trapped the Devil in a boot, sealed it and drowned him, at sea. A third is after the leather vessel, used by proprietors to carry beer from barrel to table. The St Albans Boot inn sign shows a fine boot and spur, with until 1970, there was a Wellington Inn on the opposite side of the street. Ghosts and poltergeists appeared in the Boot when a bunch of dead flowers, which someone had deliberately hidden behind a wall, was disturbed. An evil spirit that turns on jukeboxes and gaming machines during the night plagues the pub. Staff and customers have reported phantoms or dark figures abruptly appearing before them, with making low moaning sounds.