The claim
A few steps up from the Douglas sea terminal, on the corner of Chapel Row by the old market place, the Old Market Inn has one of the smallest bars on the island serving two rooms. Everything on the three handpumps comes from Bushy's, and a special grog is brewed for the TT. Above the front bar hangs a painting of a market scene, uncovered when a later picture came off it.
What the records show
CAMRA's Isle of Man branch records the house as first licensed in 1852 and gives no source for the year; the printed Manx directories, transcribed on the Manx Note Book, pick it up eleven years later and then never lose it. Thwaites's guide and directory of 1863 lists an Old Market Inn kept by James Roney in Chapel Row, among the hotels, inns and taverns of Douglas. Brown's directory of 1881 has James McClellan at the Old Market Inn on the Market Place, which is the square Chapel Row opens off, and Porter's of 1889 has Christina Fielding there. Brown's of 1894 settles the address by printing it in full: Old Market Inn, Mrs Christian Fielding, 1 Chapel Row. The house stands at number 2 today, so either the numbering has shifted or the 1894 compositor was a door out, but the name, the street and the keeper all carry straight through. Pigot's directory of 1837 names two licensed houses in Chapel Row, the Smack and the Coach and Horses, and no Old Market, so nothing traced takes the house back past 1852 and nothing contradicts it either. A record eleven years after the claimed year is well within a generation of it, which is what this grade asks for. No register entry has been traced: the Manx register of buildings, as transcribed in the English Wikipedia list, carries no entry for this house. Whether a drink is served without a meal is not in doubt — there is no kitchen in CAMRA's description, three handpumps all pouring Bushy's, and a third pump added in early 2026. CAMRA surveyed the pub on 25 January 2026 and publishes hours of nine or ten in the morning until eleven or midnight.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1852 | Claimed founding | CAMRA |
| 1863 | First record of a drinking house here | Thwaites's directory of 1863, on the Manx Note Book |
What to look for inside
- Listed in Thwaites's Douglas directory of 1863 under James Roney
- Given in full as 1 Chapel Row in Brown's directory of 1894
- One of the smallest bars on the Isle of Man, by CAMRA's reckoning
Visiting
Old Market Inn is in Douglas, Isle of Man, at 2 Chapel Row, Douglas, Isle of Man IM1 2BJ. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- camra.org.uk/pubs/old-market-inn-douglas-175990
- isleofman.camra.org.uk/viewnode.php?id=245689
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/tg1863/doclass.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/bd1881/do_chtl.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/pd1889/do_cl.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/bd1894/do_class.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/pg1837/do.htm
- www.openstreetmap.org/way/186415861
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_Buildings_and_Conservation_Areas_of_the_Isle_of_Man
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Oct 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
