Ye Olde White Hart on Silver Street looks medieval at first glance, but the building was actually put up around 1660 as a merchant’s house for Alderman William Foxley. It was designed by William Catlyn, the same builder linked with Wilberforce House, and originally sat right in the heart of Hull’s busy trading district.
As the years went on, the house picked up a strong link with local politics. By the late 1600s it was being used as the deputy governor’s residence, and sometime around the 1730s it took on a new life as The White Hart pub.
Upstairs you’ll find the room known as the Plotting Parlour. You might have heard the old story about Sir John Hotham refusing King Charles I entry to Hull and planning it all in this very room in 1642, but the building simply wasn’t here at that time. The tale stuck because of a big Victorian makeover in 1881, when the pub was redesigned to look older than it was and a stained glass window of Hotham was added. It was a good story, so people kept telling it.
The real plotting linked to this room happened later, in December 1688. During the Glorious Revolution, Hull’s Protestant leaders met upstairs to quietly plan the removal of the Catholic governor, Lord Langdale. The takeover the following morning went smoothly, and Hull marked it every year on 4 December as Town Taking Day. For more than a century it was treated almost like a bank holiday, with parades and schools and businesses closing.
That moment is tied to the same wave of support that brought William of Orange to the throne – the same William III who now stands in Market Place as the golden King Billy statue.
And then there’s the pub’s most famous feature: the skull. Found in a room upstairs during renovations, no one knows exactly who it belonged to, and the stories range from a youth struck dead by a drunk captain, to a murdered servant girl sealed in the attic after a secret liaison. Whatever the truth is, it’s one of Hull’s most unusual pieces of folklore!
You can find Ye Olde White Hart at 25 Silver St, Hull HU1 1JG, and opening times are as follows:
Monday 12–11 pm
Tuesday 12–11 pm
Wednesday 12–11 pm
Thursday 12–11 pm
Friday 12–11 pm
Saturday 12–11 pm
Sunday 12–11 pm
For updates, check their website here, or their Facebook and Instagram pages.
