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In search of Britain’s oldest pub
- forgotmypw17 4y agohttps://archive.ph/S8acn https://archive.ph/S8acn
- Nursie 4y ago> Nottingham’s Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem is a timber-framed building dating to the 17th century, and was not open for business until the late-18th century From what I understand the claim about Ye Olde Trip relates more to the caves that form part of the structure and the part they may have played as a gathering point for crusaders heading south, with claims that there was a tavern of some sort on the site, than the existing front of the building. However they certainly like to imply some sort of continuity of trade so it's interesting to find out different. Regardless of the veracity of the claims, it's well worth a look at a quiet time, because there aren't that many pubs where the back rooms are literally caves in the bedrock!
- account-5 4y agoThere's a pub where I grew up that claim it's been there since 1040 odd. Not sure of the historical accuracy but the claim is its mention in the domesday book.
- Nursie 4y agoAddressed in the article - apparently there are no pubs at all in the domesday book!
- Simon_O_Rourke 4y agoWhen I was at a conference in Birmingham a couple of years ago, I visited a Weatherspoons pub which might not have been the oldest, but definitely had not changed the kegs since the 12th century.
- vr46 4y agoIf there’s ever a zombie apocalypse I intend to spend it in a Wetherspoons so I won’t notice
- GentWhoCodes 4y agoYou can use the sticky tables as zombie traps. (Has anybody been in a Wetherspoons pub that doesn't have sticky tables?)
- fumblebee 4y ago> Let's go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over.
- shyrka 4y ago[dead]
- robotresearcher 4y agoThe idea of 'officially' is funny. A island inhabited for thousands of years, alcohol licensing administered by various authorities over the centuries, a populace that doesn't care much for central authority... . The Bingley Arms looks wonderful. It's a THOUSAND year old boozer. But let's keep it unofficial because who wants an office for these things?
- buro9 4y agoJust down the road in Angel a pub celebrated its 600th anniversary a few years ago, dating back to 1415, that doesn't even feel particularly old in the UK.
- habosa 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Red_Lion,_Islington https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Red_Lion,_Islington The reason it doesn’t look as old as they say is because it was rebuilt.
- vr46 4y agoGood pub that, though :)
- GentWhoCodes 4y agoHeh It occurred to me that many of us in Blighty will pop out this lunchtime for a pint and a bite to eat in a pub older than the USA.
- thechao 4y agoI consider the USA to be the rightful successor to George III, and the UK to be the rogue break-away state. Therefore, you're in a pub older than the UK, wrongly kept after The Glorious Revolution!
- galdosdi 4y agoYou know, there's an alternate history slightly plausible where the 1789 Constitutional Convention decided we needed a monarchy, not a republic. I'm not sure how likely that would have seemed at the time, but if so, they might have crowned someone like say, George Washington as say, George IV of the United Kingdom of American States or some such. And then there might very well be something to your joke!
- nirimda 4y agoI suppose it's easy enough for many of you in Blighty to pop out this lunchtime for a pint and a bite to eat in a pub older than the UK itself. As an Australian I'm always surprised at how long ago European colonisation of North America began, but it's probably not too hard to find pubs from before then, as well.
- k1t 4y agoI'm a little surprised there's no mention of The Royal Standard, although apparently it's not exciting enough to have its own Wikipedia page. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Green,_Penn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Green,_Penn
- ggm 4y agoI would have expected it to be at a seaport. The kinds of place which brew for local consumption might come and go but a place at an entrepot tends to stay. Or, be associated either with a monastery or a baronial estate.
- vr46 4y agoNot sure the question needs a definitive answer, but anything that helps to preserve these pubs as pubs is a-ok with me. I recall heavy sessions in The Red Lion down in Southampton because we were acquainted with the owners some time back, so we would just be locked in, party all night, pass out in the rooms upstairs and then carry on the next day. The pub might have been from the 12th Century, or the 15th, but either way, our flagrant abuse of its premises and hospitality seems entirely in keeping with its history.
- Nursie 4y agoJust stay away from the vicious bird... In Southampton I prefer the Dancing Man, which has only been a pub for a handful of years, but is housed in a building nearer to 700 years old. They brew on site, and it's really good stuff!
- shaftoe444 4y ago> the Dancing Man Good pub, still refered to as "the wool house" by most locals. Surreal to see disccusion about pubs in Southampton on hackernews this morning!
- Nursie 4y agoIt is! My excuse is that I lived there for about 9 years, until a year or so back :)
- vr46 4y agoVery surreal, I'm going back 23 years and only because I'm hoping that no one will remember those days.
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoIf you were a student then, I might've bumped into you over a Juicy Lucy in Jesters...
- fish_n_chips 4y agoI had always thought that ye olde Cheshire cheese pub would have held this, were it not for the great fire of London. https://ye-olde-cheshire-cheese.co.uk/ https://ye-olde-cheshire-cheese.co.uk/
- vr46 4y agoMet my wife in there, oo, some years ago, and I have been disappointed at how clean and shiny it all looks these days. I almost miss the days of smoking being allowed in pubs and the filthy mess they used to be.
- mnd999 4y agoI also use to spend a lot of time in there around the time the ban came in downing several pints of ‘man in a box’ at least once a week at a startup with a bit of a drinking culture. The smoke definitely masked the other smells though, once it went away things weren’t great downstairs.
- captaincaveman 4y ago‘man in a box’ sorely missed :(
- ChrisRR 4y agoI thought it was the Royal Standard in Beaconsfield, but there's no mention of it
- choult 4y agoIt claims to be England's oldest freehouse; not sure how important that distinction is versus "pub," unless it's the whole religious affiliation thing. There seems to be a suggestion it was "Se Scip" prior to the Restoration in 1663: https://www.beaconsfieldhistory.org.uk/content/beaconsfield-history/pubs/royal-standard-england-forty-green https://www.beaconsfieldhistory.org.uk/content/beaconsfield-...
- oakesm9 4y agoA Freehouse means a pub that is owned independently of the brewery that supplies it. Many pubs are owned by a brewery and rented to someone who runs it (the landlord).
- nicky0 4y agoThe thing is there’s about 20 pubs in the UK that have a sign on the outside saying “Britain’s oldest pub”
- zasdffaa 4y agoIn Nottingham is The trip to Jerusalem. It's age as a pub is debated but it's carved into jurassic sandstone, so by one measure ~165 million years old. wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Trip_to_Jerusalem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Trip_to_Jerusalem - crappy pics Pub's page https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/nottinghamshire/ye-olde-trip-to-jerusalem/ https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/nottinghamshire/ye-ol... - is shite. The uneven flagstones (walking on them was like being at sea) seem gone, so are all the currency notes people would stick on walls. Basically they've stripped it of its character. And no pics of the sandstone. Sigh, they've destroyed half of what made it.
- kitd 4y agoEven when I was a student there in the 1980s, it had rather sold out to the tourist industry and wasn't frequented much by locals. However, if you asked nicely, the landlord would allow you to go down into the cellars which are cavernous and were apparently used in the Middle Ages to harbour Jewish people under threat from persecution.
- captaincaveman 4y agoYe Olde Yew Tree is oldest near me 1348, not a bad pub too! https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g8521445-d2037676-r270442767-Ye_Olde_Yew_Tree_Inn-Westbere_Canterbury_Kent_England.html https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g8521445-d2037... Has some random relationship with Dick Turpin!
- SilverBirch 4y agoI'm sure some of the brits on here could review each of these as pubs. For my part Ye Olde Fighting Cocks has good beer and food and of course very low ceilings - definitely feels like a very old pub. The George Inn is also very good, although in a much quieter area, and I didn't even notice it was particularly old when I visited, you also start to get suspicious when you go across to the Fleur de Lys and find out that both of these pubs in this tiny tiny village are run by literally the same people - on the day we were there one guy had to run back and forth across the road because they were low on staff.
- youngNed 4y agoI was last in the Old Man & Scythe[1] about 15 years ago. It was one of those weird and wonderful cider places. I had a couple and became slowly aware that i couldn't actually use my legs anymore. Pretty sure at least one other person in the pub had pissed themselves. The two are probably related, and to anyone who has drank around the Bradshawgate in Bolton, this is by no means a reason to disregard a pub. I eventually regained use of my legs and carefully stumbled home. 11/10 [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Man_%26_Scythe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Man_%26_Scythe
- arethuza 4y agoI think I've had similar cider - last time I touched the stuff was 1983. The only other stuff on my "never drink again" list being Norwegian aquavit - funnily enough something I learned to avoid a couple of years later. University life may have been involved.
- yankcrime 4y agoThings that made me do a double-take this morning: A mention on HN of my hometown of Bolton and Ye Olde Man and Scythe!
- dnisbet 4y agoSame!
- yesbabyyes 4y agoNice! The Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Japan is a hotel founded in AD 705 and has been run by the same family since then, 52 generations.
- robaato 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies
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- sumo89 4y agoAs someone that grew up in York I was surprised to not see any mentions of buildings from there. There's quite a lot of buildings from around 1500 but most current day pubs seem to be in buildings that started at houses or commercial properties.
- mertd 4y agoThe ship of Theseus comes to mind. Surely some of these were not in continuous operation, changed owners or moved buildings. Is that the same pub then?
- egypturnash 4y agoA large part of the article concerns this. There’s mention of a pub that’s in a building from the 11c though it didn’t start being used as a pub until the 15c. It’s currently got a huge picture of an angelic nurse with two face masks on its side. https://www.theoldinnandrestaurant.co.uk/ https://www.theoldinnandrestaurant.co.uk/
- DanBC 4y agoSubmitting this because I find it interesting that there's a bunch of old stuff in England and because there's so much of it we often don't have good quality information about it, and it's not always in good condition. The article describes New Inn in Gloucester as "This incredibly well-preserved, galleried, courtyard inn", and that's true. But here's the New Inn in Google maps https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8656679,-2.2453785,3a,83.4y,119.52h,97.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sS0k-rtvOzO9HFrYIL-yvvA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8656679,-2.2453785,3a,83.4... There's some modern retail unit infill on the ground floor; there are alarm boxes and hanging basket brackets stuck on the walls; and the context of the building has been destroyed - the pavement and surrounding buildings are all modern. This thing about context is writ large in Gloucester. Here's another example just down the street of a very old building with an unhappy juxtaposition with a more modern building: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8650378,-2.2462721,3a,75y,140.38h,112.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sS4tWgCafeJjNYKezPTyzpA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8650378,-2.2462721,3a,75y,... Here's another example of a not great modern building put up next to an old (1450) building: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Cookes+Coffee+%26+Curios/@51.8665696,-2.2482787,3a,81y,30.8h,101.12t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOWUtmJLEJ5Q3E47rcnFELA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x48710c03090711f1:0xd4964ab511370440!8m2!3d51.8663937!4d-2.2479521 https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Cookes+Coffee+%26+Curios... (I'm not anti modern building! Many of them are more accessible, beautiful, playful, creative. But, also, lots of them are just rubbish.)
- walnutclosefarm 4y agoKinda hard to avoid the juxtaposition though, isn't it? Not like you can conjure suitable old neighbors for these survivors. For an example of the same thing (except with jarringly more extreme difference between the old and new) in the New World, take a look at Fraunces Tavern in New York City: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7035379,-74.0113687,3a,75y,216.79h,88.61t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s7Kdcg8KIndxqpP8qp5sJZg!2e0!5s20190601T000000!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7035379,-74.0113687,3a,75y,2... The tavern dates from about 1720. So, it's old for America, although nothing special age-wise from a European point of view. But it's almost literally buried in 30 to 50 story glass and steel towers, between Wall Street and The Battery.
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