Crown Bar Belfast

Famous for being a gem of a pub owned by the National Trust

The Crown is both ageless and priceless, a gem of Victoriana and without doubt one of the great bars of the world. The Liquor Saloon in Great Victoria Street, Belfast, was perhaps the greatest of Victorian gin palaces which once flourished in the industrial cities of Britain.

Today wonderfully preserved, the Crown is cherished and still well used by the people of Belfast. It is owned by the National trust and carefully managed by Nicholson’s Pubs, part of Mitchells & Butlers, formerly Bass. The National Trust decided to purchase this exotic property from Bass in 1978(Sir John Betjeman, the late poet laureate played a crucial role in the Trust’s decision). In 1981 the Trust carried out a sympathetic restoration and it took a sum of approximately £400, 000 to restore the Bar to its full Victorian splendour. Mitchells & Butlers again spent over half a million pounds in 2007 to ensure the pub was saved in pristine condition for generations to come.

It is now a unique visual gem, a veritable masterpiece in bar architecture, which has the distinction of being known to millions the world over.