The Sunday Times

It was John Betjeman's "many coloured cavern", but for the less poetic among us The Crown Liquor Saloon, on Great Victoria Street in Belfast, almost defies description. Said to have been designed in 1885, it pre-dates the showiest Victorian pubs by as much as 15 years. Its exterior glitters with amber, yellow, pink, green and blue tiles, but it is the interior that overwhelms. Adorned with richly carved mahogany, a polychromatic ceiling, ornamental tiles, shining brass, cut and painted windows, mirrors and partitions, it has all the hallmarks of high Victorian gin palaces. But the design of the Crown is so rich and exuberant it overshadows them all.