Ye Olde Black Boy, Hull

An old pub with a very good interior ,the front Smoke Room is charming with a real fire and it's own bar access,while the rear room has a larger serving bar,a long bench seat,wood panelling,various information about Wilberforce and his mission to stop slavery and the connection with the pub.My Portobello Northern Line Stout was very decent and the pork pie was first class but I did note that ale pricing around £3.80 per pint and £2 for a half might be one reason for the pub being quiet .Worth a look around the interior,and there was a friendly welcome from the barmaid which always helps.

Yes, also quiet when we all rocked up on late Friday lunchtime, which is a shame because this is a great old pub. Really friendly welcome from the barmaid working the central serving area but she was probably happy to see a large group of punters descend on her. Two characterful rooms as well described by previous reviewers the larger back room is quite dark with all the wood panelling and had music playing that was probably a tad loud for a largely empty room, meaning a few of the party retired to the front room with its cosy open fire and impressive wood carving of the black boy. The spiral staircase takes you to another upstairs room that wasn’t open on our visit , and a small outside terrace before returning via a back staircase to the central passage. The six beers available for our visit were Adnams Broadside, Copper Dragon Golden Pippin, TT Golden Best, Ossett Silver King, Camerons and Portobello collaboration brew Northern Line Stout and Bradfield Brewery Farmers Blonde. I tried the Farmers Blonde and it wasn’t at its best with a suspicion that it had been put on too early, although the other beers had by the party seemed OK. This was also utilised as lunch stop as we were tempted by some good looking Pork or Game pies that fortunately tasted as good as they looked and well worth the £3.00 asking price. This is a really nice pub. It could just do with more customers.

Occupying a position on Hull’s historic cobbled High Street – the oldest street in the City – in the heart of the Old Town, is The Olde Black Boy, a fine survivor in area where a good number of traditional pubs have disappeared over the years ( see the photos of them in The Whalebone ). It’s a Grade 2 listed building. Parallel to the River Hull, the High Street and its accompanying narrow streets were, in times long gone by, a lively mixture of seamens’ dwellings, pubs and warehouses where cargo unloaded from the ships was stored. Previously a tobacco merchants, then a wine merchants, it became a pub in the 1700’s. Contrary to what one might assume – the William Wilberforce Museum is just a few doors away – the name of the pub is not connected to the slave trade, but represents a pipe smoking American Indian which was a symbol of the tobacco trade in those days. Entered via a narrow alleyway, a cosy quiet and smallish front smoke room features dark wood panelling, a beamed ceiling and frosted leaded windows. A small fireplace features a carved boy’s head in the chimney breast surround. Service to this room is through a small hatch to the main bar where the servery is situated. Further down the alleyway towards the rear of the building is the larger main bar, similarly wood panelled and decorated with old pictures of Hull, beer related posters and, high up on a shelf, a collection of bottled beers. The pub is listed in CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. Somewhat disappointingly for a fine historic pub like this, and probably a reflection of its location somewhat away from the main drag ( despite its “High Street” address), I was virtually the only customer present for much of my recent late August midweek visit. An open mic night – The Buskers Ball – is held every Wednesday evening and I gather that the pub is a bit livelier then. 6 beers were on which included Castle Rock Harvest Pale Ale, Ossett Silver King, Copper Dragon Best, Everards Sunchaser plus beers from Exmoor and Wychwood. The Ossett Beer – at a relatively pricey £ 3.10p – was in good nick. After an absence for a number of years, the pub returned to the CAMRA Good Beer Guide in 2012. This is one of Hull’s must visit pubs

This was my favourite pub when I visited in 2005, if it is the same pub, I thought it was called just Black Boy but everything else seems to match up. Back in Hull for an overnight stop on March 3rd, so watch this space! Will be disappointed if it doesn't match up to my memories, sat in here on the Sunday as we were leaving, and didn't want to go home!