The Black Swan, York — claims 1417

The claim

Twin gables and a jettied first floor face Peasholme Green, whitewashed over timber framing, with brick wings of the 1670s behind. Three rooms downstairs: the Ingle Bar with its brick inglenook and 1930s counter, the panelled Oak Room served through a hatch, and a later-panelled front room. Timothy Taylor Landlord is the regular beer, a folk club meets upstairs, and there is decked seating at the back.

What the records show

The pub's history page says the house was built for William Bowes, a merchant and Sheriff of York, in 1417, and that he became Lord Mayor in 1428. The same page says the building dates to the fifteenth century "when it was a private house", and that a medieval inn is only supposed to have stood on the site before the present one. Historic England lists the building Grade II* (list entry 1256886, first listed in 1954) as a house, now public house, of late C16 date with early and late C17 extensions and C20 renovation, citing the Royal Commission's inventory of central York of 1981. York Civic Trust's plaque record attributes the rebuilding to Sir Martin Bowes in 1560, incorporating an earlier family house, and the brick additions to Sir Henry Thompson in 1670; it puts the Bowes mayoralty of 1417 on William Bowes the wool merchant, not a build date, and states plainly that the Black Swan has been a public house since the late eighteenth century. CAMRA's entry says the same in fewer words — a timber-framed house turned into a pub in the eighteenth century — and its National Inventory description credits much of the present interior, including the Ingle Bar counter, to a 1930s refit by the Tadcaster Tower brewery. So 1417 dates neither the standing fabric nor any drinking house on these premises: grade C. Drink-led use begins after 1750, which keeps the pub off the Top 100 while it keeps its page and its pin; no year has been traced for the change of use, only the fact of it. The wife-sale of 1884 the pub repeats, and the tunnel to St Cuthbert's, are told as stories and evidenced as stories.

Dated evidence for The Black Swan, earliest first
Year	What	Source
1417	Claimed founding	The pub
c.1560	Present building	York Civic Trust plaque record, which attributes the rebuilding of the house to Sir Martin Bowes in 1560, consistent with Historic England's late C16

What to look for inside

CAMRA's National Inventory rates the interior three-star, of outstanding national historic importance
The Oak Room keeps seventeenth-century oak panelling and is served through a hatch to the back of the servery
The 1930s refit was a prestige job by the Tadcaster Tower brewery, done with historical character in mind
The upstairs function room, with its trompe l'oeil painted panelling, hosts the Black Swan Folk Club

Visiting

The Black Swan is in York, England, at 23 Peasholme Green, York YO1 7PR. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

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