Tucked along Bangor’s High Street, the Harp Inn is easy to pass without a second thought to its long history. But behind its modest frontage lies one of the city’s oldest surviving buildings, with a history that stretches back to the age of stagecoaches, long before the railways reached North Wales.
Old newspaper records suggest the Harp opened between 1780 and 1785, making it the oldest datable pub in Bangor and one of the city’s longest-running licensed premises.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Bangor sat on one of the most important transport routes in Britain - the road between London and Holyhead. Before the arrival of the railway, this was the main link to Ireland, and inns like the Harp played a crucial role in keeping people and goods moving.
The Harp was a coaching house, a smaller but essential type of inn that catered for travellers making the long journey. Behind the building there would have been a yard for carriages, stables for horses, and storage areas for feed and equipment. Travellers would stop to rest, eat, and change horses before continuing their journey along the route.
The road itself was later improved by Thomas Telford, whose work helped transform it into a key artery of trade and travel.
The Harp Inn once welcomed both Charles Dickens and Telford, reflecting its importance as a stopping point on this busy route. In 1859, Dickens is said to have stayed at the inn during his travels through North Wales.
Not all of the Harp’s history is grand. In 1895, landlord David Hughes was fined five shillings after a chimney fire at the premises, a small but vivid reminder of the risks of running a busy inn in the days of open fires and coal heating.
By the mid-19th century, the building was known as the Harp Hotel, indicating that it offered accommodation as well as food and drink. As travel patterns changed and the railway took over, the need for coaching inns declined. Like many similar establishments, the Harp adapted, shifting from a stopover for travellers to a local public house serving the community.
More than two centuries after it first opened, the Harp remains a working pub in the heart of Bangor. While the horses and stagecoaches are long gone, the building continues to serve the same essential purpose, bringing people together. From its origins as an 18th-century coaching house to its role today, the Harp Inn stands as a rare and enduring link to Bangor’s past.
Photos: (1) Postcard of the Harp Hotel in 1860. Charles Dickens stayed here in 1859. Still a public House in 2025. David Hughes, the landlord in 1895, was fined 5s for letting the chimney catch fire. (2) The Harp Inn, 2014 (Credit: TripAdvisor)
This article was written by Cymru Originals.
0 comments