Some of York's historic pubs
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Do you want a good excuse for a pub crawl? Why not go in search of York's historic inns? At least one of them is housed in a building that is about five hundred years old and another pub has a roman bath in its cellar.
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The Maltings
An inn since about 1840
This building has been an inn since about 1840 (Victorian times)and is probably the first pub you will see if you enter York from the train station.
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The Snickelway
Used as an inn since before 1770
This pub is reputedly the most haunted pub in York. A Snickelway is a snicket or passageway; people have used some of these as shortcuts for hundreds of years.
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York Arms
Dating from about 1838
This is one of the few pubs I know of that were actually built with the intension of selling alcohol. In the 1970s the pubs interior avoided being destroyed. An extension was built but instead of ruining the historic front bar, the extension was built in the building next door.
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The Old White Swan
An inn from about 1700
This building has been used as an inn from about 1700 and once housed a barbers shop and a pig sty!
The pub is old enough to have been visited by Dick Turpin, England's most notorious highway robber, he was tried, hanged and buried in York in 1739 but unfortunately I think it's unlikely that he ever came here. Still who knows?
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The Roman Bath
An inn since the 1780's
Used as an inn since the 1780's the pub gets its name from a roman bath 15 feet below the pub (where the cellar should be). If you ask nicely the staff will usually let you see the remains of the roman bath, you may have to pay a small fee.
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The Black Swan
Built in the fourteen hundreds I think (over five hundred years ago!)
A truly historic building, this was the family home of Sir Martin Bowes, Lord Mayor of York in 1545, when Henry VIII was king. Historians also think General James Wolfe, 1725-1759, stayed here as a child.
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The Royal Oak
An inn since the 1780's
Used as an inn since the 1780's. That's just four years after America's Declaration of Independence and seven years after the Boston Tea Party. This was a time when people, in jolly old England, were running round smashing up the new machines, of the industrial revolution, that were taking away their jobs and livelihoods.
I've heard The Royal Oakdescribed as "a pub full of character with home cooking." Now that sounds nice.
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The Golden Fleece
One of the oldest pubs in York
This building has been an inn since at least 1656. The building was once owned by John Peckett he was the lord Mayor of York in 1702. Lady Peckett is said to haunt the pub, I wonder if the people who saw her were sober?
The Golden Fleece gets its name from the woollen trade which was immensely important in medieval York. Many of York's splendid medieval buildings would never have been built, if it wasn't for the money, made from the sheep, that were raised on land in north Yorkshire owned by the monasteries.
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The Blue Bell
An inn since the 1780's
This building has probably been an inn since the 1780's. The pub belonged to one family, the Robinson's, from 1902 - 1992. George Robinson held meetings in the Blue Bell that lead to the formation of York City football club in 1922.
The Blue Bell is listed in the CAMRA National inventory of outstanding pub interiors.
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The Kings Arms
An inn since the 1780's
This building has been used as an inn since the 1780's. The Kings Arms is the oldest building on Kings Staith. When York was a thriving port, this was the busiest quay, and the place where the King would get on and of his boat. The Kings Arms is also York's famous underwater pub. It seems to get flooded by the river Ouse almost every year. The pub cellars are up stairs in a room where the bodies of criminals, who had been hung of the Ouse Bridge, used to be displayed. Don't worry it doesn't affect the beer.
