Some pubs look like they were designed to be photographed. The Gingerman looks like it was designed to be in. Tucked into pedestrianised Arundel Lane — the narrow passageway just off Broad Street in the old Norman quarter of Waterford — it has the kind of interior that accumulates rather than decorates: low ceilings, open fires in several bars, wooden surfaces worn smooth by decades of use, and a welcome that doesn’t feel performed.
More Tavern Than Pub
The Gingerman is regularly described as more old-fashioned tavern than modern pub — the kind of place where conversation happens naturally because the room is the right size and the noise level hasn’t been engineered to prevent it. The beer is poured from original 1960s taps, the pies and Irish stew are made properly, and the steak sandwiches have their own local following.
Sunday Trad
On Sundays from 5pm, the back bar comes alive with traditional music — the real kind, played by people who play for the pleasure of it. It’s one of the better trad sessions in the city, in one of the better rooms for it.
1960s beer taps, open fires, trad music Sunday evenings. The Gingerman is what Waterford pubs looked like before they started trying to look like something else.
Mon–Thu: 10am–11:30pm | Fri & Sat: 10am–12:30am | Sun: 12pm–11pm
The Gingerman
6 Arundel Lane, Waterford City
📞 051 879 522
What Makes It Tick
The Gingerman works because it doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is: a genuinely good old-fashioned pub. The selection of whiskeys is one of the most thoughtful in Waterford, the pint is well kept, and the bar staff know their stock. On a quiet Tuesday afternoon it is one of the finest places to sit in the city. On a busy Friday night it has a different energy altogether, though still without the manufactured atmosphere that characterises so many pubs that try too hard.
The Setting
Arundel Lane is one of those Waterford details that rewards the curious visitor: a pedestrianised lane running off Broad Street through the medieval core of the city, flanked by buildings that carry centuries of history in their stonework. The Gingerman at the end of it — dark-fronted, unremarkable from the outside, exceptional within — is the kind of pub you feel you have discovered rather than stumbled upon. That feeling is part of the experience.
Good to Know
The Gingerman is on Arundel Lane, off Broad Street, Waterford — look for the lane entrance between the city’s main retail street and the older Norman quarter. A two-minute walk from City Square Shopping Centre. The pub does not do food. It does not need to. Opening hours are standard Waterford pub hours — check the venue for current times. On sunny afternoons the lane itself spills into an informal outdoor drinking area that the locals treat as their own.
The Gingerman is the kind of pub that Waterford does better than it is given credit for: genuinely old, genuinely good, with no interest in being anything other than what it is. It has been there longer than anyone can remember and will be there long after the refurbished bars around it have been refurbished again. Come once and you’ll understand why certain Waterford people treat it as their own.