The Market Tavern, 27 Market Place, Durham, Co.Durham. DH1 3NJ.
Posted by: 
greysman
N 54° 46.626 W 001° 34.549
30U E 591603 N 6070917
The only surviving pub in Durham's Market Place.
Waymark Code: WMN6Z6
Location: North East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/07/2015
Views: 3
The Market Tavern is a Grade II listed building on the old Framwellgate Market Square in the heart of old Durham, it is the only pub on the Market Square and is now part of the Taylor Walker chain.
Built in 1851 as part of the adjacent Covered Market Hall, the Guildhall, and the Town Hall it was designed by Philip Charles Hardwick (1792–1870). He was born in Westminster the son of the architect Philip Hardwick (and grandson of architect Thomas Hardwick (junior)).
The pub is of coursed, squared sandstone with ashlar dressings with a roof of large Welsh slates. It is a mix of Perpendicular and Tudor style, three storeys high with an attic, and one bay in width. The altered ground floor has a four-panelled door at the right side in a hollow-chamfered reveal with rounded corners, there is a stone Tudor-arched over-window with two lights under a head-stopped drip mould. The main front window is modern, seven and two-halves times four pane timber framed. There are stone-mullioned-and-transomed three-light windows on the upper floors and a two-light window in the gabled half-dormer which has moulded kneelers. The steeply-pitched roof has a large coped polygonal chimney.
The information plaque is actually on the front of the adjacent building to the south of the tavern and is a dark green painted oval plaque encircled with a gold-painted rope feature, the inscription, not the best of English in places, is in gold paint. Below are the words 'MARKET TAVERN' also in gold. It reads:-
This pub was originally called
the City Tavern.
A series of events since 1850 ensu[r]ed the
popularity of this pub. This is the story.
In 1851 an Act of Parliament allowed meat, fish
and poultry to be traded in the Market Place so that
the area became the focalpoint of the city.
In 1853 the Council Committee of Durham declared
the water in the Market Place unfit for human
consumption so that customers could only quench
their thirst from the excellent ales served in this
public house.
In 1865 the City Tavern was re-named The Market Hotel
and it grew even more popular in 1871 when the
Durham Miners Association was formed here.
The Market Hotel became so successful that by 1940
it was the only remaining pub in the Market Place.
Today the Market Tavern is maintaining its
tradition as a very popular place to sample
the finest selection of the Nation's ales.