Rex Bar

The Rex Bar has traded from the same address on the Shankill Road since 1865, making it the oldest surviving pub on the road. A narrow single-bar layout runs the length of the building, with a marble terrazzo floor from an earlier refit and a beer garden enclosed off a side street. The garden's end wall carries a large mural of Edward Carson signing the 1912 Ulster Covenant, a nod to the pub's place in the area's political history. Regulars mix with visitors drawn by the pub's reputation as one of the calmer, more welcoming stops on the road. It keeps standard lager and stout on tap, with a small espresso machine added in recent years. There is no food menu; it remains, first and foremost, a drinking pub.