The Denbigh Castle stands on Hackins Hey — one of Liverpool's oldest thoroughfares, named after John Hacking through whose hedgerow-lined croft the lane was first laid out in the 1600s. The pub itself is the oldest licensed premises in the immediate area, with its first recorded mention in Gore's Directory of 1815, where William Williams is listed as Victualler.

At that time it was a modest beer house, as was common in the early nineteenth century — the current fire door was once the entrance to an alleyway leading to a warehouse behind. In 1852, the pub was extended outward to create a two-room layout, but the original Victorian facade was preserved; visitors can still see the original front door steps set into the threshold.

The pub traded under its historic name for over a century before rebranding as Walters in the 1970s, where beer was dispensed petrol-pump style into half-pint glasses — a curious footnote in its long story. After closing, it lay dormant until 2020, when Fiona and Dominic Hornsby of the Small Hands Company restored it to its original name and identity.