Kelly's Cellars, 30-32 Bank Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 4HL

Kelly's Cellars, 30–32 Bank Street, Belfast

Kelly's Cellars is a two-storey painted brick public house located on Bank Street in Belfast city centre, corner-sited and fully abutted to its neighbours on the side and rear elevations. It is reputed to be the oldest public house in Belfast and is certainly one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city. Although debate continues over its precise construction date — the pub itself maintains a traditional date of around 1720, while most architectural historians, including Brett and Patton, favour a date of around 1780 — it is certain that the building, or an earlier structure occupying the same footprint, was in place by 1757. It appears on John Maclanachan's plan of that year, where the characteristic bend in Bank Street caused by the building's position can already be seen. The building is clearly visible on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–33, and is considered an early Georgian dwelling of considerable rarity in the city.

Architectural Description

The roof is slated and hipped, with angled blue clay ridge and hip tiles and tall painted brick wallhead chimneystacks. Rainwater goods are simple cast iron gutters on drive-in brackets. The walls are painted brick throughout, with a contrasting base course, and windows are replacement timber set in contrasting reveals.

The east elevation presents an asymmetrical two-storey painted brick facade, terminating against the neighbouring building to the south. At ground floor there is a panelled door set in stone surrounds, forming part of a shopfront with entablature and plain pilasters, alongside a small-pane window. At first floor, two small square windows with four-pane lights sit alongside a wide 21-pane window, which is currently obscured. The ground floor corner is chamfered. Two carriage lights and a further lantern in ornate iron fixings appear to have been added since the first heritage survey was carried out.

The north elevation shows the main body of the pub rising two storeys, with a chimney rising from the wallhead. The elevation is broken only by a door and two 6-over-6 pane sash windows with outside shutters. A later section to the west is also two storeys but has a higher wallhead and flat roof, again with a tall brick chimney positioned at the front, a door at ground floor level, and two small 6-over-6 windows at first floor. The remaining two sides are built against adjoining buildings and the rear elevation is inaccessible.

The pleasant whitewashed appearance of the facade, noted admiringly by Brett in 1985, is not original but dates from around 1950, and was the work of Henry Lynch Robinson and Max Glendinning.

Setting

Kelly's Cellars is set within a pedestrian precinct in Belfast city centre, with a backdrop of much taller early 20th-century redbrick buildings. Formerly positioned at the bend of a narrow entry, the demolition of nearby buildings has left the pub more exposed than it once was.

Historical Background

Bank Street may first appear on Thomas Philips' map of Belfast in 1685, which depicts a short lane branching off Castle Street with a small number of early dwellings. By Maclanachan's 1757 plan the street had been laid out along its current route, with the bend caused by Kelly's Cellars already visible.

The contemporary Townland Valuation of around 1830 records the property — valued at £4 7s. 5d. and described simply as a store and offices — as being occupied by a Mr Hugh Kelly, who had held the lease for approximately ten years, had repaired the premises upon taking possession, and paid annual rent of about £40. At the time of the valuation Kelly resided in a house on Bank Street close to the business, though by 1861 he had moved to a more affluent residence in Holywood. The 1843 Belfast Street Directory records Hugh Kelly and Co. as Wine and Spirit Merchants operating from Bank Street. By 1860 Griffith revalued the property at £25 — a large increase from the earlier figure that cannot be explained — and recorded that Kelly leased the site from a Mr Robert Stewart, who administered the Belfast estate of Captain William Mussenden of Larchfield House. The Mussenden family, primarily associated with land in County Down, had also been instrumental in establishing the first bank in Belfast in the mid-18th century and owned a number of properties in the area around the premises, including Bank Street. Between 1862 and 1881 the value of the public house was reduced to £22 following the removal of a small cellar from the valuation record.

Although Annual Revisions continued to record Hugh Kelly as occupant until around 1900, possession passed to new tenants on his death in 1871 in Holywood. It was likely at this point that the premises were taken over by Young, King and Co., who were not formally recorded as occupants until the Belfast Revaluation of 1900. The bar continued to be listed under the name Kelly in subsequent Belfast Street Directories. The 1900 revaluation described the public house as "very old" and in a "dilapidated" condition, noting that it was fitted with gas installations; Young, King and Co. continued to lease the site from the Mussenden estate and paid annual rent of £18 5s., with the property revalued upward to £65. As a public house rather than a private dwelling, the property was unoccupied during both the 1901 and 1911 Censuses of Ireland.

In 1917 the value of Kelly's Cellars was increased to £95 following an application against the previously low rating; this was the last alteration recorded in the Annual Revisions, which ended in 1930. Young, King and Co. were still recorded as occupants at the time of the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935, when the value was slightly reduced to £86.

During the period of Young, King and Co.'s administration, the public house was managed in the early 20th century by Joe Devlin, Nationalist politician and Member of Parliament for West Belfast. Devlin managed Kelly's Cellars for the Nationalist MP Sam Young before entering full-time politics in 1902, using his time as manager to build contacts and experience. He believed, as recorded in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, that "publicans, properly managed, could underpin nationalist organization in a way that class-based or cross-communal appeals could not."

The pub also served as storage premises: Law records that in the latter half of the 19th century, the loft was used to store equipment belonging to Dr Thomas Corry, a well-known amateur showman who produced celebrated diorama shows — moving rolls of illustrated canvas that were precursors to moving pictures — depicting idyllic Irish scenes.

Kelly's Cellars was damaged during the Belfast Blitz of 1941. The site was subsequently purchased in 1942 by James Tohill, head of the Tohill Vino wine firm, and refurbished. Under Tohill, a cocktail bar was opened on the first floor in 1948, and a second lounge known as the Tudor Lounge was opened in 1954. By the time of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the value of Kelly's Cellars stood at £880, reflecting both general inflation and the extension and alteration work carried out during this period.

In 1961 the premises were purchased from Tohill by B. O'Kane and Co. for a then-record price of £43,000; the O'Kane firm also operated the Glenshesk Inn at the corner of King and Castle Street. B. O'Kane and Co. administered Kelly's Cellars briefly until 1972, when it was sold again, this time to Croft Inns, who simultaneously purchased the Fountain Tavern on Fountain Street. Kelly's Cellars was listed in 1977.

Writing in 1985, Brett described the pub as possessing a "pleasant whitewashed outside" with "downstairs rooms with knee-height bar, low archways, and blackened snugs" that were "highly interesting and atmospheric if now somewhat self-conscious." He was, however, critical of modern alterations to the upper floor, describing the upstairs lounge as "aesthetically deplorable." By the time of a further refurbishment between 1985 and 1994, Patton described it as a two-storey building with an irregular facade in white painted brick with black plinth, noting that the interior still retained "something of the atmosphere of the heady days when the United Irishmen plotted here."

Kelly's Cellars was purchased by Guinness in the late 20th century and sold to its current owners in 2000. At the time of that sale, the Belfast Telegraph noted that as a result of the refurbishment carried out around 1990, most of the original features — including the low bar counter, snug booths, and pictures — had been removed. The original low bar counter had in fact been removed as far back as 1961, according to Law.

By the Second General Revaluation the value stood at £880, and despite subsequent changes of ownership and refurbishment, Kelly's Cellars continues to operate as one of Belfast's most prominent historic public houses and a significant tourist destination.

Connection to the 1798 Rebellion

The public house maintains a strong historical connection to the 1798 Rebellion, having been the traditional haunt of the leaders of the United Irishmen. It is popularly believed that in the aftermath of the Rebellion, Henry Joy McCracken hid underneath the bar to evade pursuing soldiers. An Ulster History Circle Blue Plaque was unveiled at the site in 2007, reading: "Society of United Irishmen / 1791–1798 / met here." The Ulster History Circle noted that Kelly's Cellars "has successfully survived without major changes, escaping the worst effects of 'modernisation' and preserving the best features of the traditional public house" — a claim that sits in some tension with the documented loss of most historic fabric.

Current Significance

Although no longer a Georgian, or even a Victorian, public house in terms of its surviving fabric, and although extensive alterations have compromised its historic and architectural integrity, Kelly's Cellars retains significance as one of a very limited number of structures to survive from 18th-century Belfast. It is generally accepted as the oldest continuously run public house in the city. For comparison, McHugh's Pub on Queen's Square is an earlier building dating from around 1711, but did not operate as a public house until the 19th century. Kelly's Cellars is a vernacular building set within a conservation area, and its enduring connection with the United Irishmen and the early development of the city ensures its continued importance as a place of local and historical interest.