The Crown Liquor Saloon… a gem!

I had heard and read about the Crown Liquor Saloon, and had even gone in search of it once in the lovely city of Belfast. However it was only when we were visiting in the summer that after wonderful morning of wandering, and in need of refreshment we found our way to this old pub. It is even more beautiful than I had realised, and what is more it served super beer and had a most enticing menu.

When you arrive you will be stunned just by the exterior, it is beautifully tiled in polychromatic tiles… I’m afraid my photo doesn’t do it justice… you will just have to go and visit yourself! You enter and you will be struck by the pleasant and friendly atmosphere; it is extraordinary, it is a major tourist attraction and yet somehow it has the atmosphere of a normal very good pub. There is a mosaic on the floor of a crown as you enter, and the mosaicking continues throughout the pub. I guarantee when you step inside your mouth will drop open in wonder, because you will never have been in a pub anywhere in the world which is like it. The bar is made of red granite in “an altar style, with a heated footrest underneath and is lit by gas lamps on the highly decorative carved ceilings,” the National Trust site tells me, because it owns The Crown. (We are members of the NT but we didn’t get free beer!)

Another feature of the pub is that there are individual little booths for customers; I guess it was from a time when Belfast business men would meet there and want to be private in what they were discussing, what deals they were making! The little booths have doors so we sat in one with our drinks. In those days drinks would be served by waiters and in these little ‘snugs’ there are still the bells which would have been used to summon them. There are also gun metal plates to strike matches, because in those days smoking was allowed. They are beautifully ornate, with painted glass and carved decoration. The ceiling is an absolute marvel with the original gas lamps still in place… we couldn’t make out whether they had been converted to electricity – I’m sure they must have been!

The pub dates from 1826, when it was called The Railway Tavern; Peter Flanagan who took it over from his father, was able to persuade Italian craftsmen working on public buildings in the city to ‘moonlight’ for him and refurbish and decorate his pub in 1885.