The claim
Tucked down a passage off Winchester's High Street, the Royal Oak is a low-beamed, wood-panelled pub that vies with Chalton's Red Lion as Hampshire's oldest. Its boast of fabric from Queen Emma's time is fanciful, but records of a taverner here around 1400 give it real medieval pedigree. Expect quiz nights, Sunday roasts and a small beer garden.
What the records show
The link with Queen Emma's residence in 1002 is legend. Local historians cite records of an unnamed taverner here between about 1390 and 1430 and a 1637 schedule naming a tapster with a brewhouse, which gives it one of the better documented medieval tavern histories in Hampshire. The year comes to this page from the Petersfield Post: a nostalgia column of September 2018 on the two Hampshire inns that each claim to be the county's oldest, which has an unnamed taverner living here between about 1390 and 1430 and a schedule of 1637 naming John Chase, tapster, and his wife Elizabeth, with a brewhouse holding a brass furnace and a pump. The column names no historian and no record office, so the papers behind it have not been traced.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1002 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1450 | Present building | Grade II listed (NHLE 1322135) |
| 1430 | First record of a drinking house here | The Petersfield Post, in a 2018 nostalgia column |
What to look for inside
- Claims parts date to 1002 AD and Queen Emma
- Taverner recorded here c.1390-1430
- Contends with the Red Lion, Chalton, for oldest pub in Hampshire
Visiting
The Royal Oak is in Winchester, England, at Royal Oak Passage, off High Street, Winchester SO23 9AU. 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.greeneking.co.uk/pubs/hampshire/royal-oak-winchester
- www.petersfieldpost.co.uk/news/nostalgia-two-ancient-inns-vie-for-the-title-of-oldest-pub-in-county-307771
- historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1322135
- www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol5/pp36-44
- ratings.food.gov.uk/business/12371
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.
