Inscription e.g. RIP vandalised to the left of a pub (8)
I believe the answer is:
epigraph
'inscription' is the definition.
(epigraph is a kind of inscription)
'e g rip vandalised to the left of a pub' is the wordplay.
'vandalised' indicates an anagram.
'to the left of' says to put letters next to each other.
'pub' becomes 'ph' (abbreviation).
'g'+'rip'='grip'
'grip' is an anagram of 'pigr'.
'e'+'pigr'+'a'+'ph'='EPIGRAPH'
(Other definitions for epigraph that I've seen before include "Inscription on a building, statue or coin" , "Quote at start of book" , "Inscription on statue, coin, etc" , "Quotation" , "Inscription, citation" .)