Halifax is the ‘capital’ of Calderdale, and a place you’re likely going to pass through if you’re hiking on the nearby moorlands. It’s also home to The Piece Hall, an old cloth market now used as a place for independent shops, outdoor events, and especially concerts. So there’s every chance if you’re coming here, you’ll want to know where the best place is to grab a decent beer.
Obviously there’s a lot of pubs in town, but here’s my views on some of the better ones – obviously bear in mind I’m a bit of a beer snob and prefer places that sell craft ales rather than ones that have the usual offerings but are a bit more lively. These are in no particular order, they’re just the order I wrote them in.
Oh, and if this post hits a certain market, yes this is the original Halifax in England, and not the much larger city in Nova Scotia, Canada. I’ve never been to Nova Scotia, but I imagine the beer scene over there is just as good.
The Three Pigeons
Outside The Three Pigeons. It does look on the outside like a traditional pub. And it kind of is.
On a road south of town, this pub looks slightly out-of-place around car washes and industrial complexes; indeed it seems like the last standing building of an otherwise demolished old terrace. It was built in 1932 with an art-deco styling, and is apparently Grade II Listed.
The bar area. Traditional yet eclectic.
It’s quite aesthetic inside, and divided into a number of snugs and small rooms, with some quite nice architectural flourishes and colourful windows, including feature fireplaces. It’s run by Ossett Brewery, and there’s generally around four cask ale taps on, mostly from that brewery, as well as the standard keg fayre. There’s a nice array of crisps and snacks and it also, occasionally, seems to do pork pies.
One of the snug rooms; note the pigeon motif.
Though quite close to the railway station and Piece Hall, its location at the south end of the town does make it feel a little ‘out of the way’. It’s sometimes where I end up if there’s a big concert on at Piece Hall and all the central bars and pubs are rammed. That said, it is also on the way to the Shay Stadium, so it’ll get a bit packed with sportsball traffic.
København
It’s hard to take a picture of a bar in a shopping arcade, especially one with a full seating area in front!
This is an open-space bar in the centre of town, in the Westgate arcade and next to a variety of other bars and restaurants. There’s a large seating space outside, in the arcade itself, as well as two large downstairs areas and a smaller upstairs room. Aesthetically it’s quite ‘functional’ rather than ‘pretty’, quite plain with slight industrial vibes, but you’re there to drink, not to look at the walls.
It’s quite a spacious place inside, if a bit minimalist.
There’s always six cask ales on, including one dark and one session beer, and over twenty craft beers on keg – enough to be able to produce a handout listing them all. These always come from around the country and aren’t limited to local breweries – they are quite fond of sours from Edinburgh’s Vault City, for instance, and occasionally have ‘festivals’ where all their beers are of a certain type, They also have a kitchen on site where you can have burgers, hotdogs, and topped fries, all much more interesting than you might expect.
Very minimalist, in fact. This is the upstairs room, and it vibes like an IKEA showroom.
Quite why they decided to name their bar after the capital of Denmark is unclear – I’ll ask next time I’m in there, though its website does say it’s been designed with a Scandinavian feel. The bar itself is owned and operated by the same people who run the Victorian Craft Beer Cafe, which has a quite different vibe.
Victorian Craft Beer Cafe
There’s not actually enough room to fit the whole building in easily into one shot!
Oh this is a gem. Set over several floors, with hidden staircases, snugs, and somewhat Victorian-era décor that feels like Charles Dickens’ study chamber, this is the pub I tend to fall into the most – helped by the fact that, though it’s at the edge of the town centre and at the top of the hill Halifax is built on, it’s a short stagger from my bus home.
There’s books and trinkets and interesting stuff pretty much everywhere; you could do a whole photo post on this pub alone!
Owned by the same people as København, this is much more of a pub than a bar in ambiance, It offers up to eight beers on cask, and at least twenty on keg; Kirkstall Brewery brew a beer specifically for them, and there’s always a Veltins lager on keg, but apart from that the range varies regularly. They also have the occasional ‘festival’ on, including a Dark Beer weekend (Back in Black), usually in November in where you can sample things that, let’s face it, you’ll probably regret later, for both health and wealth reasons.
One of the upstairs rooms/snugs/mezzanines, also with books. And, not visible, armchairs.
Although they don’t do food, they offer a decent array of crisps/bar snacks, and also do a range of home-made pork pies in several flavours, including chorizo, black pudding, and chilli. They also often have live music on Sunday afternoons in one of the downstairs areas.
Grayston Unity
It’s hard to take a picture of a pub when there’s always a car parked in front of it!
A convenient place for a pub, being up the hill from the railway station, and very close to the junction with the main shopping streets of Halifax. It’s also arguably the most convenient of this selection for the Piece Hall, though it very much depends which entrance you need to enter through.
The bar. Objectively the least aesthetically interesting part of the venue.
It covers two levels; the ground floor is long with decent seating, and contains the bar. The upstairs is in two sections – a large indoor room and a smaller outdoor terrace, between which are the toilets which are lined with pages from 1970s lifestyle magazines, The walls are decorated in posters and material that relate to beer, music, poetry, and politics; they sell t-shirts and hoodies that are vehemently anti-fascist. If this pub were a music genre, it’d probably be ska. Unsurprisingly they act as a small music and spoken word venue.
A piano. Mismatched wallpaper. Weird posters. Paintings your granny would be proud of. As pub décor goes, this place has all of it.
They offer four or five beers on cask and a couple more on keg; they’re also one of the many pubs and bars in the town that don’t do food but do offer home-made pork pies, Its name comes from a combination of the owners’ maternal surname and the concept of community. Which fits, I think. They also own and operate the nearby Meandering Bear micropub.
Meandering Bear
I’ve never been to the fish & chip restaurant advertised above it, just for the record.
Named after an escaped bear from the old Halifax Zoo in 1913 (and there’s a poem on the wall to commemorate this), this micropub is on Union Street, one of the main shopping and access streets in the centre of Halifax, close to some of the main bus stops.
The bar in the Meandering Bear – you can get a sense of their beer selection.
It’s a one-room place, with a slight raised area around the bar. Its location and size means it gets very crowded if there’s a concert on at the nearby Piece Hall. It’s quite a plain décor; some say it’s slightly reminiscent of a 1970s working men’s club, with the ceiling tiles and the chairs.
It’s quite plain décor, quite nice and simple. And it’s a good size for a micropub.
The pub offers up to five cask ales, including at least one dark and one bitter, and five keg beers, including a couple of semi-permanent ones from Thornbridge and Wishbone breweries. They also sell a small range of food, including ‘hipster’ toasties, pies, and cheese or meat boards to share. They won CAMRA’s pub of the season in Spring 2022.
The Hop In
Pretty much opposite the Meandering Bear is the Hop In (not Inn, I’ve made that mistake twice). This is a small micropub and beer shop also on Union Street in the centre of Halifax. It relocated not long ago from the Market to be more flexible with opening hours, but, as always, double-check before you go.
Picture taken on one of the many times it was closed.
There’s two levels – a slightly larger open-plan one downstairs around the bar, and a smaller upstairs room. There’s a couple of tables but it’s generally one of those places where people congregate at the bar.
It’s a very small space and the bar is right in front of the door, so it’s hard to take a decent picture that shows everything.
They offer a small selection of beer on tap, but this includes real cider. They also have a much larger selection of cans and bottles to drink in or take away; indeed its size has meant I’ve been more likely to scour its shelves and fridges for beer to take away rather than drink in. They won the local CAMRA pub of the season in Spring 2026.
The Old Post Office
Another of the pubs that looks exactly like a traditional pub does.
Alongside the Three Pigeons, this is probably the most ‘normal pub’ of my selection in this blog post. It’s just off the main road, on the right, between the railway station and the bus station, and possibly not a place you might come across if you didn’t know it was there.
View of the bar area. It’s very plain.
Built in the late 1700s, it’s based in the old post office, as the name suggests, and is a reasonably-sized L-shaped room, with the bar in the inside corner and a function room with dining tables and DJ desk at the back. It’s relatively plain inside, and offers three decent beers on tap, a couple of house lagers on keg, and, on my most recent visit, three different flavours of Old Mout Cider.
But you don’t come here for the aesthetic, you come here for the beer.
The beauty of this place is it’s often not crowded; it feels very much the old-mans-pub of central Halifax. It has a tendency to open relatively late in the afternoon – it’s not a place for a lunchtime drink. It also seems to cater for a rugby league crowd, with references to Halifax Panthers on the wall.
Dukes
Another arcade pub whose location makes it hard to photograph effectively.
This is a small micropub on two levels, under the old Victorian-era awning of Halifax’s Borough Market complex. It has high ceilings and has walls covered in posters, and gives over quite a ‘primary colours’ whimsy student-type vibe.
Great if you like pastel shades with your beer.
The pub had four cask beers on my most recent visit, and there’s a blackboard behind the bar that usually lists around sixteen keg beers on offer. They seem fond of beers from Rivington and Left Handed Giant breweries, and they also always have a couple of sours on keg. They won CAMRA’s pub of the season in Spring 2023, and I’ve been told that in summer they have a slushie machine for cooling drinks. Presumably this makes them bespoke spritzers.
Designed by someone who possibly wants to relive their childhood ideals, maybe?
I’ve seen adverts promoting a running club here, suggesting they’re fond of community. They also sell hot sauces and artwork from local creatives, and occasionally have events and poetry nights on. Fun fact: this may have been the first pub I went to in Halifax after moving to Calderdale.
