We’re named for one of the British Empire’s most revered citizens and military men. Sir Arthur Wellesley, a.k.a. ‘The Duke of Wellington’. This establishment was named after the Duke because a) We’re at 207 Wellington Street, and b) The building was completed in 1852, the year of the Duke’s passing into The-Great-Tavern-in-the-Sky. In its early days, the first floor of 207 Wellington housed W.J. Crothers Biscuits, a famous bakery and cookie factory. Today, this renovated historic limestone room is the destination of food and beer lovers.

Although the Duke never visited Kingston, his connections with the city are numerous. As Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in the years following the War of 1812 with the United States he successfully pushed for the construction of the Rideau Canal system, which ends in Kingston’s Cataraqui Bay. Wellington insisted that at the Canal’s end “there must be a good Fort on Point Henry” to counter the threat posed by the newly completed Erie Canal in New York. Today Kingston’s Fort Henry is listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations, the first such distinction in Ontario history.