Duke of York, Belfast

The Duke of York is located down a side street where picnic tables run down the length of the pub. There is a thin bit of standing room between the bar and the entrance and there is seating in the right hand side, including some snugs and a raised area. The bar supports standard keg and Estrella. A pint of Guinness is £5 and a half is £3, so I went for a the pint. I don’t really know where to start with describing the décor, let’s just say that the walls and ceiling are plastered with stuff and the copper topped tables sit well in here. The service was polite. This is a must visit if in Belfast.

Situated in the narrow, tight streets by the docks. As of mid-January was closing at the end of the afternoon, which seems rather short-sighted to me and I missed a beer here as a result. Presumably once the COVID panic is over it’ll go back to normal hours?

Tucked away down a pedestrianised side street, this is a very popular and busy pub with as many punters spilling out in to the alleyway as there were inside. It’s quite attractive looking with brick arches and whitewashed stonework, and a number of benches were helpfully placed outside as well. The pub premises seem to span both sides of the street, and it was not immediately apparent what was what, and we found that the first entrance we went through actually led to the gents! Once we had located the right part of the pub, we found an extensive, but nonetheless fairly compact pub that was packed full to capacity with little standing room never mind anywhere to sit. Chequered red and black tiling covered the floor, but other than that it was impossible to determine what the décor was like since every available square inch of the walls and ceiling were covered with stuff, much of it old Guinness advertising material. Certainly old brewery mirrors were prevalent, but there was also Christmas lights with miniature pints of Guinness, numerous old advertising signs, clocks, lamps, illuminated signs and so on. Amazingly there were no real ales on tap, which seems something of a travesty in such a remarkable pub. The solitary cider was Orchard Thieves which was a little disappointing and didn’t seem to have travelled too well. Overall I’d say this was a real must visit pub, but the disappointing drink choice may well mean that you only stay for one, as we did.