The claim
A free house on Parliament Square in Ramsey, in a building the Manx register takes to have been raised about 1797 as a private house for Thomas Mylrea, and which later served as the High Bailiff's residence — Frederick Tellet, the longest-serving of them, lived here. Nothing traced says when the drinking began. OpenStreetMap records it as a pub and a free house, and keeps Mylrea's House among its older names.
What the records show
Registered Building No. 176 on the Isle of Man's register, registered on 30 September 1998, says the house was probably built as a residence for Thomas Mylrea about 1797, that it is also known as the Old High Bailiff's Residence, and that Frederick Tellet, the longest-serving High Bailiff, lived in it. That is a date for a building and not for a drinking house, which is why the row is out of the ranking. The register's own notice answers 404 from this machine, as every gov.im media link does, and the Internet Archive was offline when a copy was looked for, so its wording is known from the English Wikipedia list that transcribes the register with its numbers and dates. The first dated sight of drink comes from the printed Manx directories, transcribed on the Manx Note Book. Porter's directory of 1889 lists James Purcell at the Central, 1 Bowring Road, among Ramsey's hotels; the Ramsey directory of 1892 has him at the Central Hotel, Parliament Street, among the hotels and public houses; and Brown's of 1894 carries him at the Central under both addresses, Bowring Road among the hotels and Parliament Street among the licensed victuallers. Both streets meet Parliament Square, where the house stands, and OpenStreetMap's note on the building says the register document gives its census entries as 1 Bowring Road. No Central is named in the Ramsey lists of Thwaites's directory of 1863, Brown's of 1882 or Smith's of 1883. An absence from a directory dates nothing on its own, so 1889 is the earliest record traced rather than the year the trade began. Question one rests on OpenStreetMap, which tags the building as a pub and describes it as a free house, and records the old name Mylrea's House; the trading status is believed rather than confirmed, and a status check is still owed.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1797 | Claimed founding | Its listing |
| 1889 | First record of a drinking house here | Wikipedia |
What to look for inside
- Registered Building No. 176, registered 30 September 1998
- Probably built about 1797 as a house for Thomas Mylrea
- Home of Frederick Tellet, the island's longest-serving High Bailiff
Visiting
The Central is in Ramsey, Isle of Man, at Central Hotel, Parliament Square, Ramsey, Isle of Man IM8 1AH. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_Buildings_and_Conservation_Areas_of_the_Isle_of_Man
- www.openstreetmap.org/way/102856141
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/pd1889/ra_class.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/dd1892/ry_dir.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/bd1894/ryc.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/tg1863/ry.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/bd1881/ra_a.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/sm1883/ra.htm
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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