CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

YORKSHIRE (EAST) - Hull, White Hart Hotel

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part Two

109 Alfred Gelder Street, Hull, HU1 1EP

Tel: 01482 228136

Web site: www.thehartofhull.co.uk

Opening Hours: Only open on a Friday and Saturday evening at present so ring to check

Draught Beer & Cider: Real ale

Public Transport: Railway Station: Hull

Pub Food: Meals

Accomodation: 2 rooms

Listed Status: Grade II

View this pub on a local map

This former Hull Brewery Company house was rebuilt in 1904 (architects Freeman, Son & Gaskell) and well-appointed in the manner of a smaller Edwardian drinking ‘palace’. Although Edwardian character was eroded from the pub’s back parts by remodelling in the 1970s, it is beautifully preserved in the front bar - an outstanding room that has all its original wood-panelling and bench seating a fine mahogany bar back-fitting with impressive glazed-towered cupboards and, spectacularly, a rare ceramic-fronted bar-counter (by Doulton’s of London). Only eleven remain in the whole of the UK and a further ceramic counter from is to be found at another Hull pub, the Polar Bear on Spring Bank.

Other of Britain's Real Heritage Pubs with a ceramic bar counter are the Black Horse, Preston, Lancashire; Mountain Daisy, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear; Red Lion, Erdington, Birmingham; Garden Gate, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire; Golden Cross, Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales; Crown, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Other examples can be found at Towler, Tottington, Greater Manchester where the bar has been moved; Town House, St Annes on Sea, Lancashire but it is in the little used function room with limited access; and Waterloo Hotel & Bistro, Newport, Gwent, Wales which has no public bar facility.

The entrance lobby too has original doors and floor tiling. (Note: the back room boasted its own ornate, ceramic counter too - until the 1970s). What a pity the rear parts of the pub have been opened up.