Is Ye Hole in Ye Wall Really 300 Years Old?

The problem with the date 1726

The first mistake is to treat the date displayed on the frontage as if it were a verified construction stone.

Hackins Hey is unquestionably an old Liverpool street, and the surrounding area has genuine early history. A Quaker meeting house was established on the east side of Hackins Hey in the early eighteenth century. However, the history of that meeting house does not establish that today’s building at No. 4—or a pub inside it—dates from 1726.¹

The physical and documentary evidence points in another direction. Published map analysis indicates that the site of the present pub was still clear in 1803 and that a warehouse occupied it by the 1840s.² If that identification is correct, it rules out the surviving building being an untouched structure from 1726.

Liverpool directories add an intriguing complication. Alice Burkey appears at “4 Hackins Hey” in 1827 and 1829, although no occupation is given. Early numbering cannot automatically be mapped onto the present premises, so these entries establish activity at an address called No. 4 but do not prove the age or use of today’s building.

Much firmer evidence appears in the following two decades.

A Victorian commercial building

On 29 April 1847, first-floor offices were advertised at No. 4 Hackins Hey.³ On 24 February 1848, the same address was being used as a “Patent Galvanized Tinned Iron Warehouse”, with F. and H. J. Morton acting as agents.⁴

These notices prove that identifiable business premises existed at No. 4 by 1847–48. They do not provide an architect, construction contract or completion date, and they cannot prove that every part of the present fabric survives from that time. Nevertheless, when combined with the map evidence, they make the 1840s the most credible period for the building’s original commercial core.

The cautious architectural conclusion is therefore that the present premises are Victorian—probably built, rebuilt or consolidated during the 1840s—and were altered substantially afterwards.

That would make the building approximately 175 to 185 years old in 2026, rather than 300.

The first firm evidence of a beerhouse

The earliest direct evidence found for drinking-house use comes from a Liverpool County Court report published on 4 August 1854. It identifies Thomas Williams as a “beer-house keeper” at 4 Hackins Hey and refers specifically to his bar parlour.⁵

This is much stronger evidence than a later pub tradition or an undated sign. It establishes that customers were being served in a beerhouse at this address by the summer of 1854.

The trail continues. In September 1856, No. 4 was advertised to let as a “good beer and luncheon house”.⁶ Two months later, J. W. Fletcher was advertising dining and refreshment rooms there.⁷ In February 1857, the address appeared as Keen & Taylor’s Carlton Dining Rooms.⁸

These records show a premises combining drink, food and refreshment uses during the 1850s. They also show why searching only commercial directories can be misleading: small beerhouses and short-lived businesses were not always recorded consistently.

The evidence allows a firm minimum date, but not an unbroken-history claim. Drinking-house use is documented at No. 4 from 1854—172 years before 2026—but the records examined do not prove that the licence continued without interruption through every subsequent year.

O’Donnell’s arrives

The next major phase began with the O’Donnell family’s wine and spirit business.

In April 1864, O’Donnell’s announced that it had moved temporarily from 8 Dale Street to 4 Hackins Hey because its Dale Street premises were being taken down and rebuilt.⁹ This notice has sometimes been misunderstood. It says that the Dale Street property was being rebuilt; it does not say that No. 4 Hackins Hey was rebuilt in 1864.

The decisive notice appeared two years later. On 4 June 1866, O’Donnell’s Whisky Warehouse informed the public that its proprietors had made “extensive alterations” to the Hackins Hey premises.¹⁰

This is the strongest documentary clue to the origin of the building’s remarkable frontage.

O’Donnell’s continued to be associated with No. 4 for decades. Advertisements place its stores at 2 and 4 Hackins Hey in 1872 and continue to promote its Irish whisky from No. 4 in 1880.¹¹ Directory evidence records the spirit trade there later in the century. By 1900, William John Donnelly was listed as a victualler at 4 and 6 Hackins Hey.

The premises therefore had a substantial alcohol-related history long before they acquired their present name.

When was the “fake-old” frontage built?

The frontage is central to the legend because it appears far older than the documentary history of the building.

Its half-timbered, mock-Tudor treatment is not evidence of Tudor or early-Georgian construction. It is a piece of historicist design: a Victorian or later attempt to create the atmosphere of an old English tavern.

Published comparison of maps and images places the frontage’s introduction between 1848 and 1891.² The 1848 warehouse evidence supplies the early end of that range, while later evidence shows the altered appearance in place before the end of the nineteenth century.

The 1866 newspaper announcement fits directly inside that window. Because it records “extensive alterations” at the premises, the most reasonable working conclusion is that the mock-Tudor frontage was probably created as part of those alterations, in or around 1866.

That conclusion must retain one qualification. The advertisement does not itemise the work and does not explicitly state that a timbered façade was installed. Without plans, a building contract or a contemporary description of the new frontage, 1866 cannot be treated as an absolutely proven construction date.

The evidence therefore supports two levels of certainty:

• Most likely date: around 1866, during O’Donnell’s extensive alterations.
• Secure documentary range: after 1848 and by 1891.

In either case, the frontage is Victorian rather than Georgian. If the 1866 interpretation is correct, it is about 160 years old in 2026.

What the photograph from around 1910 proves

A photograph generally dated to around 1910 provides a valuable checkpoint.²

The distinctive gables, timbering and leaded windows are already present. So is the “1726” date. Yet the large sign over the entrance reads O’DONNELL’S. It does not read Ye Hole in Ye Wall.

The image proves three important things. The historic-looking frontage was in place by about 1910; the 1726 claim had already become part of the building’s presentation; and the premises were still publicly identified with O’Donnell’s rather than their present name.

The photograph does not show an ancient pub retaining its original identity. It shows an established wine-and-spirit premises already dressed to look much older than the documentary evidence suggests.

When did it become Ye Hole in Ye Wall?

The exact renaming date has not yet been found, but the available evidence narrows the change considerably.

The circa-1910 photograph still carries the O’Donnell’s name. The earliest securely dated newspaper reference found to “Ye Hole in Ye Wall” at Hackins Hey appears in the Liverpool Echo on 23 January 1923.¹² The article presents the name as evocative of medieval times—evidence that the old-world image was already doing its job.

A report in the Liverpool Evening Express of 22 October 1926 remarks that the establishment “modestly calls itself” Ye Hole in Wall in brilliant lettering.¹³

The safest conclusion is therefore that the familiar name was adopted sometime after the circa-1910 photograph and no later than January 1923. Unless an earlier dated reference emerges, January 1923 is the first secure point from which the present identity can be measured.

That makes the name at least 103 years old in 2026. It does not make the underlying drinking-house only 103 years old: documented beerhouse use reaches back to 1854.

The interior is another historical layer

The interior deserves recognition in its own right, but it should not be used to prove the 1726 claim.

CAMRA’s national historic-pub inventory considers the interior to be of national importance. Much of the significant surviving pub fitting is associated with the inter-war period and the 1930s.¹⁴ That work helped create the enclosed, old-fashioned atmosphere experienced by customers today.

The result is not a single untouched eighteenth-century interior. It is a succession of genuine historic layers: a nineteenth-century commercial building, a Victorian old-English frontage and an important twentieth-century pub interior.

So how old is Ye Hole in Ye Wall?

As of September 2026, the most defensible answer depends on what is being dated:

Conclusion: a real historic pub, but not a 300-year-old one

The claim that today’s Ye Hole in Ye Wall is an unchanged pub dating from 1726 is not supported by the evidence currently available.

The balance of evidence points to a Victorian building, probably originating in the 1840s. It was operating as a beerhouse by 1854. Its deliberately antiquarian frontage was probably installed during O’Donnell’s extensive alterations of 1866, although the safest proven range is 1848–1891. The name Ye Hole in Ye Wall is securely documented by January 1923, and much of the nationally important interior belongs to the inter-war period and the 1930s.

Calling the pub “only 103 years old” is therefore both right and wrong. Its present name and identity are at least 103 years old. Its documented drinking-house history is at least 172 years old, and the core of its premises may be approaching 180 years old.

What it is not—on the evidence found—is a 300-year-old pub preserved unchanged from 1726.

That does not diminish its importance. The true story is one of adaptation, reinvention and exceptionally effective historical theatre. Ye Hole in Ye Wall is a genuine Liverpool survivor, but its history was assembled in layers rather than created on a single date.

Editorial note on certainty

This article distinguishes direct documentary evidence from inference. The 1847–48 premises, 1854 beerhouse, 1866 alterations and 1923 pub name are supported by dated contemporary records. The 1840s construction date and attribution of the mock-Tudor frontage to the 1866 alterations are evidence-based conclusions rather than dates stated explicitly in a surviving building contract.