Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, St Albans

Ye Olde Fighting Cocks

16 Abbey Mill Lane, St Albans AL3 4HE

Grade C · TraditionTrading · checked Sept 2026

Ye Olde Fighting Cocks claims AD 793. The records say 1756.

Claimed

AD 793

First record

1756

Building

no single date

The building. Medieval dovecote (c.1400) re-erected as a house between c.1600 and 1622 — we give it no single date because the c.1400 timber is a dovecote; the standing house was re-erected between c.1600 and 1622.

Riverside

Real ale

Food

Beer garden

Dog friendly

The claim

Squat and octagonal beside the River Ver below St Albans Abbey, the Fighting Cocks is one of Britain's most famous oldest-pub contenders. The 793 date is legend, but the building itself began life as a medieval abbey dovecote before being rebuilt as a house around 1600. Inside are low ceilings, snug alcoves and an old bread oven.

What the records show

The 793 is the pub's own claim: its website says the original structure has been dated as far back as 793AD. Historic England notes the 793 date first appears on an early-20th-century postcard. Legal papers show the old pigeon house was rebuilt as the 'Round House' by 1622; the first firm record as an alehouse (the Three Pigeons) is 1756, and the Fighting Cocks name appears by 1806.

Dated evidence for Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, earliest first
Year	What	Source
AD 793	Claimed founding	The pub
1756	First record of a drinking house here	Historic England

What to look for inside

Octagonal building originally a medieval abbey pigeon house
793 claim traced to an early-20th-century postcard
Entered administration in February 2022 and reopened under new management

Visiting

Ye Olde Fighting Cocks is in St Albans, England, at 16 Abbey Mill Lane, St Albans AL3 4HE. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

fightingcockssa.com Directions in your maps app

Sources

The Fighting Cocks in 1956: octagonal tiled roof, tall white chimney stack and a motorcycle parked by the fence — Then and now
Photographed about 1956, and today. The same corner in 1956, with the brick building beside it that has since gone.

Low white-walled pub with a steep tiled roof, tall chimneys and picnic benches on the gravel outside — Then and now
Photographed about 1956, and today. The same corner in 1956, with the brick building beside it that has since gone.

Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 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.