The claim, and the building
White’s sits at 2–4 Winecellar Entry, a lane between High Street and Rosemary Street. The pub’s own site says this is Belfast’s oldest tavern, with a corporation tavern licence on the site in 1630. Historians are more careful: the site is that old; the brick building you drink in was rebuilt around 1790 for the merchant Valentine Jones. Kelly’s Cellars (1720) is the older pub room still standing. Both things can be true. Do not pick a fight at the bar about it.
The entry itself was a wine-and-spirit lane. The house has been tavern, hotel, oyster rooms (1868), merchants. A 2019 refit added White’s Garden (retractable roof, sport). A beer hall followed in 2022. There is also a small Guinness-only room at the front of the old building. You can have a historic pint or a beer-hall Saturday. Decide before you walk in.
How it works
The tavern is walk-ins only — no bookings. Garden and hall are the overflow. Site hours (check first): Monday–Thursday 11:30am–1am, Friday–Saturday 11:30am–2am, Sunday 11:30am–midnight. Phone 028 9031 2582. whitestavernbelfast.com.
Who it is wrong for
Anyone who wants a tiny, unchanged 17th-century cellar and nothing else — the complex is bigger than the plaque. Also wrong if you need a booked table in the old room on a Saturday.
Next door
The Morning Star is the other entry pub with a kitchen. Kelly’s Cellars if the date on the wall is the whole point. The Crown if you want Victorian glass instead of an alley.
Sources: whitestavernbelfast.com, Belfast Entries / Patton on the 1790 rebuild. Last checked September 2026.