Hope and Anchor Tavern

A pub that has been pouring beer continuously since 1807 — possibly Australia's oldest still-operating tavern

Address 65 Macquarie Street, Hobart
Opening Hours Daily 11:00–late
Admission Free entry

A narrow, dark, two-storey pub in the centre of town with a strong case for being the oldest continuously-operating tavern in Australia. The licence dates to 1807; the present building is from 1828, with the original cellars below the bar. The walls are covered in maritime memorabilia — ship models, harpoons, scrimshaw — and the upstairs dining room has an open fireplace that is genuinely useful in winter.

The food is solid pub fare (a serviceable lamb shanks, fish and chips, Sunday roast) and the beer list is short but local. Worth a pint for the history alone; the upstairs room is the better seat in winter.

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The original licensee, James Spence, was granted his licence in 1807 — making the Hope and Anchor older than any continuously-operating pub in Sydney or any of the other Australian colonial capitals. The claim to "Australia's oldest pub" is contested (Sydney's Lord Nelson and Fortune of War also lay claim, with different definitions of "continuous"), but Hope and Anchor's documentary record is good.

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