Whites Tavern

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey rendered public house of c1790 facing into the courtyard of Winecellar Entry. The style is urban vernacular, though the fenestration is fairly regular.

Bangor Blue slate roof with ridge parallel to Lombard Street. Corbelled eaves with ogee gutter.

Front elevation rendered and painted with slight texture; shallow frames round most windows, and projecting cills. Windows (modern) d/h sash with horns, typically 2 over 2, fairly regularly spaced in six bays. Ground floor more irregular with four windows close together, one much smaller window and three doors. (Modern) ornamental iron grilles to windows at ground and first floor. Quoinstones at each end of the terrace.

The building is landlocked, being built against on three sides.

Setting: Reached by entries either from Lombard Street or Rosemary Street, Winecellar Entry is picturesque, but the physical surroundings of the Tavern are not as attractive as it is.

Schedule of materials:
Roof: Slate
Walls: Painted and rendered brick
Windows and doors: Timber
Rwg: Cast iron

Historical information

White’s Tavern, a three-storey public house situated at nos 2-4 Winecellar Entry, claims to be Belfast’s oldest tavern; traditionally, the first building on the current site is believed to have been established as early as 1630. A theory states that the original structure on the site was erected in 1630 by a Mr. Thomas Kane. There is no documentary evidence that accurately supports this build date; however, the 1685 map of Belfast records that Winecellar Entry did not even exist in the mid-17th century. The map shows that the area between High Street, Bridge Street and Waring Street was utilised as yard and garden space, whilst there were no standalone buildings depicted within the area which later became Winecellar Entry. A second, more plausible, theory suggests that the Bateson’s (an English family) established a wine and spirit store in the area in the late-1600s. The traditional date of 1630 does not necessarily refer to the construction of a building on the current site but is most likely derived from the granting of a continuous tavern licence which was not restricted to a particular area or building, but could be moved with the proprietor (Law, p. 88).

Regardless of when the first tavern or wine store on the site was originally constructed, it is clear that the current building does not date from the mid-17th century but in fact dates from the late-18th century when the previous structure was demolished and reconstructed by a Mr. Valentine Jones. A wine merchant, Jones constructed ‘two good and substantial messuages or tenements of Brick and Lime, three stories high.’ Patton states that Winecellar entry was originally known as Bigart’s Alley, a six feet wide alley that was first depicted on the 1715 map of Belfast. Bigart’s Alley was renamed Winecellar Entry by the early-19th century due to the number of winecellars that were been established along the alley (Patton states that Winecellar Entry only consisted of eight buildings in 1822) (Patton, p. 341).

During the early-19th century the wine and spirit store changed hands with great frequency; Law states that in 1803 the property came into the possession of a Mr. James Napier and was later controlled by William Park & Co. A Mr. John Kane was the sole wine merchant recorded on Pigot’s Street Directory of 1824, however by the 1830s the ‘stores and off[ices]’ were occupied by Messers John Murphy & Co; the Townland Valuations first valued the building at £48 at that time. By 1852 the property was occupied by Hugh White and his partner, a Mr. James Neil; in that year the Belfast Street Directory recorded the site as ‘Neil and White - wholesale wine and spirit merchants.’ Neil and White continued to work in partnership until at least the early-1860s when Griffith’s Valuation increased the rateable value of the ‘stores and wine vaults’ to £85, noting that Neil and White leased the building from a Mr. Hill Hamilton (Belfast Street Directories, 1824-1861; Law, p. 89).

James Neil left the partnership between 1861 and 1868 when Hugh White took over the wine and spirit stores, giving the building its current name, although the establishment was then known as Hugh White & Co; White died in 1882, however the licensed stores continued to operate under his full name for a century until the 1960s. Since the early-19th century, the building on Winecellar Entry was not referred to as a public house but operated as a licensed wholesale store; ironically, Law states that a portion of the building was utilised as a Temperance Hotel in the 1870s. It is not known with certainty when Hugh White’s wine and spirit store was converted into a public house, however, by the Belfast Revaluation of 1900, the building included a public house which was open for six days of the week but was required to close early. The valuer recorded that White continued to sell wine and spirits wholesale, but noted that ‘the retail premises is little used [and only] sold £520 worth of drink by retail last year.’

Under the Belfast Revaluation, Hugh White & Co.’s premises were increased in value to £185, however by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930 this had been decreased to £130; the property (still described as ‘licensed stores’) remained valued at this amount by the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935). There was no further valuation survey undertaken for over two decades due to the outbreak of the Second World War, but in 1956 the Second Revaluation increased the value of Hugh White & Co. Ltd. to £248. Having been referred to by this full name for over a century, the building was renamed White’s Tavern in 1962; in that year the building was renovated resulting in its value greatly increasing to £650.

White’s Tavern underwent a major restoration and heavy redecoration in the 1980s when ‘the style of both the exterior and the interior [was] designed to reflect the rich heritage of one of Belfast’s oldest drinks emporiums.’ Brett, writing in 1985, criticised the renovation of the building noting that ‘until quite recently it combined the picturesque and the practical to perfection with its heavy timbered bays, barred windows and roof hoist. Unfortunately it has recently been disastrously restored in ‘Ye Olde style;’ the outside boasts a poker-work inn-sign, the interior is replete with arty brass and electric bulbs in bogus lanterns’ (Law, p. 88-89; Brett, p. 7).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/1 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1832-33
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/720A-B – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/7/5A – Griffith’s Valuation 1860
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/E/1-9 – Annual Revisions 1863-1896
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/19-42 - Annual Revisions 1897-1930
10. PRONI VAL/7/B/9/25 – Belfast Revaluation 1900
11. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/13 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
12. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/42 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
13. Belfast Street Directories (1824-1918)
14. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-13SE (1959)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast: 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press, 1985.
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Georgian Belfast, 1750-1850: Maps, buildings and trades’ Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2004.
3. Law, G., ‘Historic pubs of Belfast’ Belfast: Appletree Press, 2002.
4. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Three-storey rendered public house with atmospheric ground floor, probably dating from the late 18th century, facing into the courtyard of Winecellar Entry. Although obviously updated over the years, the Tavern has a long history and this is reflected in the finishes and decoration, particularly of the ground floor which is evocative.