The claim
A downtown Kingston inn dating its trade to 1839, in the city's limestone core. George Mink took the premises at the head of Brock Street in 1838 and held a tavern licence there every year from 1839 to 1848. Its Coppers Pub and a sports bar serve wings, pints and big-screen games, with hotel rooms upstairs. The restaurant and bar are open daily from noon, and the rooms from Wednesday to Saturday.
What the records show
The inn says it was established in 1839 by the Wolfe Island businessman Martin Staley and is one of Canada's oldest continually operating inns. A record for the trade has now been traced, and it names somebody else. The Kingston local-history project STONES, working on the city's Black history, sets out the career of George Mink, who announced in May 1838 that he had taken extensive premises at the head of Brock Street, lately the White Horse Inn, and who held a tavern licence every year from 1839 to 1848; the 1842 census for Ward 4 lists him as a tavern keeper and the 1847 assessment for St Lawrence Ward records him there, with land registry entries and a further public notice of September 1840. That is licensed tavern keeping at the address in the year the inn claims, which is what grade A asks for, so the grade moves up from tradition. It also complicates the founding story: the premises were a drinking house under an earlier name before Mink took them, the house was built in stages, and Martin Staley is not the man the licences are in. On the trade there is a plain answer: the inn's own site announces that it has officially reopened, with the restaurant and bar open from noon to ten Monday to Saturday and to eight on Sunday, and the hotel open Wednesday to Saturday. Coppers Pub and the Sports Tap & Grill are both inside the hotel. No heritage designation for the building has been traced.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1839 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| 1839 | First record of a drinking house here | queensinn.ca |
What to look for inside
- Claims one of Canada's oldest continually operating inns
- Recently reopened
Visiting
The Queen's Inn is in Kingston, Canada, at 125 Brock Street, Kingston, ON K7L 1S1. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- www.queensinn.ca/
- www.ontariopubs.ca/PDF/pubMagazine/pubmagazine_2014_13_web.pdf
- www.stoneskingston.ca/black-history/george-mink-part-one-queens-inn/
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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