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Submitted on Sunday, 8^th June 2025
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Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem, Nottingham

1 Brewhouse Yard
Nottingham
NG1 6AD

Correct details

Pub Type

Greene King

Served areas

Nottingham Central

Reviews of Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem (Average Rating: 7½ of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Blackthorn _ left this review about Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem

Well described by many others below, this has been on my “to do” list for a long time as it’s allegedly the oldest pub in the country, and a plaque on the wall in the small courtyard beer garden says that’s it’s been going since 1189. It would be interesting to know what it was like then, the building on the front of the rock face certainly appears to be more recent than that, although it is still nonetheless an attractive timbered building.

Internally it’s something of a rabbit warren as might be expected from a pub that’s been hollowed out of the caves below the castle. It’s spread across a couple of floors, with the only original part of the ground floor being a small snug behind the bar counter. A larger room extended forwards adjacent to the courtyard. The snug was quite cosy and very dark. The walls and ceiling pretty much merged in to one as they were just hewn from the rock with no clear delineation between one and the other. A small fireplace made with black painted bricks was off to one side, and next to it stood a suit of armour dressed in some of the pub’s own apparel. Padded bench seating was fitted around much of the perimeter, along with small stools elsewhere. The light fittings looked as though they could have been commensurate with the pub’s age, albeit converted to electricity now. A few old books were on the mantlepiece and a further head from a suit of armour was on a shelf in the corner. The larger front room, whilst clearly not so old was nonetheless still quite pleasant, with slate style tiling on the floors, black beams on the whitewashed ceiling and exposed stonework on much of the walls.

Upstairs it opened out somewhat in to a larger room, again hewn from the rock, and there was another small bar counter in here, although this was not in use on our Sunday lunchtime visit. Décor wise it’s broadly similar to downstairs although much lighter due to the windows at the front. A long shaft extended a considerable way up through the rock, perhaps a ventilation shaft or chimney at one time. Up a few more stairs and down a passageway was a much smaller room with modern slate tiling on the floor but otherwise original perhaps, with a couple of swords mounted in display cases on the wall.

Beers on tap were Green King IPA, Old Peculiar, Abbeydale Absolution, Hardy & Hanson’s Olde Trip, Welbeck Abbey Saint James, Nottingham EPA, Stancill No 7, Beermats Matte Black and Milestone Cursed Galleon. Ciders meanwhile were Old Mout Berries & Cherries, Mortimer’s Orchard and Henry Weston’s Vintage. Overall, a real must visit, and despite the potential for it to be something of a tourist trap, it really didn’t feel like one and I could see myself visiting regularly if I were a local.

On 20^th June 2025 - rating: 8
[User has posted 2082 recommendations about 1981 pubs]

Moby Duck left this review about Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem

I was somewhat dubious about visiting this pub given it's tourist trap reputation and avoided going in on an early Saturday evening, instead opted for an opening time visit on the Sunday, handily at 11.am, I'm glad I did, we had the pub to ourselves for a good fifteen minutes or so before one or two others drifted in,time to wander around the interesting multiple areas within the pub. Apart from a couple of their own beers on there is little to point to this being a Greene King run pub, which suits me. There was good beer choice available over a total of nine handpumps, I opted for a Beermats Prismatic in decent shape. I found this pub an excellent start to the day and will go as far as to say a must visit pub but timing is everything.

On 17^th November 2024 - rating: 8
[User has posted 2210 recommendations about 2176 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Strongers . left this review about Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem

I paid a long overdue trip to Ye Olde Trip on a recent Wednesday evening when it was reasonably quiet so I got to have a good look around what is apparently the oldest pub in the land. This is Greene King pub so obviously their Olde Trip was going to be on the bar alongside IPA. One of the other six hand pumps was reverse clipped which left Theakston’s Old Peculiar, Little Star Brewery’s Shipstones Original, Beermats Brewing’s Matte Black, Brewster’s Brewery’s Decadence and Welbeck Abbey’s Portland Black as the cask options. Premium keg is also available, and ironically England’s “oldest” pub is now card payments only. The staff were surprisingly friendly for a Greene King pub, let alone such a tourist hotspot.
There are at least two bars and lots of different seating areas including some upstairs that have been carved into the rock. I took a picture of the suit of armour, but I stopped short of buying a T-shirt. I think the highlight of my visit was meeting Lee, who would be world champion of Hook the Horn if there was such a thing. This game is basically a hoop on a length of string hanging from the ceiling and the aim is to swing it onto a hook on the wall. A great atmosphere was being generated as Lee challenged the tourists who passed through the small back bar to snag the hook. Not expecting much from my visit I actually left pleasantly surprised because my pint was decent, the service was welcoming, there was a good atmosphere, and it wasn’t too busy.

On 4^th August 2023 - rating: 8
[User has posted 6168 recommendations about 6131 pubs]

View more reviews of Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem (29)

This pub features in the following crawls:
Nottingham Alternative Crawl by Mark Davey
"Child Friendly" pubs in central Nottingham by Will Larter

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