Entertainment For Lively Minds
Pubs
Posted by FreakGene on 16 December 2011 - 8:58pm.
My company has just moved to N1, just up the road from Word in fact. But I'm shocked at the pub situation in the area. And in London generally.
Where has the old fashioned boozer gone to? The ones that are still open in that neck of the woods are either far too painfully 'trendy' (Lexington)or do 'food' (Lord Woolsley). I'm just after a Pub. With carpets, two bars and frosted windows (or curtains) so you can't see in. Maybe a jukebox too.
I just want an old geezers pub. Where have they all go too?
Hic.
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Haven't been there for years
but I used to like the Camden Head just along Camden Passage
the old geezers
have in the main gone to weatherspoons. Good selection of beers and ciders and cheap.
One of the many reasons I'm glad I no longer drink...
is that I'd now struggle to find a pub I'd want frequent regularly.
The necessities:
* pork scratchings and pickled onions
* old men with pipes and yellowing moustaches
* pint mugs and real ale
* brass not chrome fittings
* tatty carpet not polished floorboards
* smoke as thick as a London pea souper
* brassy barmaid
* Big D peanuts on glamour model card backing
not to mention
*glowering middle aged skinhead in the corner with a spider web tattoo on his neck to cover his old NF one
*a woman in her early 60s nursing a gin and tonic dressed in pink leggings and clingy top
* the young woman with a ring on every finger who never looks up from her mobile phone on which she texts continuously
* the toddler (the young woman's son) who leans by the fruit machine and stares at you while eating Quavers and drinking J2O
* the toilet which has a cracked urinal and and no door on the cubicle
* the tables and counter tops which are never cleaned
* the Olde Pub Fayre menu which consists of "Cheeseburger" and "Curried Chicken Thai Style" but has not been available since the Lithuanian chef handed in his notice 2 months previously
Can't imagine why people stopped going
Naaah... A proper, drinking pub doesn't serve food beyond
crisps, nuts, scratchings, pickled onions and, maybe, if you're lucky, a cheese roll.
Absolutely correct.
If the cheese roll has a thinnish slice of white, eye-wateringly strong onion in it as well, that's haute cuisine.
I'll have another 6X, what'll you have, stimps?
And just you try
finding a spitoon worth its salt nowadays! I have to gob on the pavement out the front instead!
Yeah, those were the
days
Myddleton Arms
If you are in N1 then try the Myddleton Arms on Canonbury Road. A rare oasis in a desert of gastro-pubs.
The Crown...
The Island Queen
Filthy Mcnastys
to name but three in walking distance of the word office.
(I too work round the corner)
More importantly now you are in N1 you too can play spot the Word staffer getting lunch on Chapel Market.
It's complicated.
I and others will gladly forego the comforts of home for a place of real atmosphere on occasion. To me, it's undeniable that there are simply too many pubs for the available market in 2011. High quality TV, DVD, availability of actually-pretty-good-quality beverages for home consumption at a reasonable price - all of these have contributed to the present 'crisis'.
That said, a 'public house' can sometimes be exactly what people want. However, far better surely to have a town with, say, 20 well-frequented pubs/bars of real quality catering for all 'segments' than 40 half-empty ones?
We have to make do with one well-frequented pub.
With no jukebox, a roaring fire, two decent ales, a fat snoozing moggy who dribbles, a snug bar and a public bar, and good simple nosh. I'm happy with that.
Thry The Mucky Pup
just off the Essex Road, behind The Old Queens Head.
Great free juke with plenty of garage, Cramps and 60's stuff, pool table, scratchings n twiglets and great staff.
Used for Steven Wells wake - nuff said.
this wave of criticism for London pubs
makes Edinburgh sound almost Utopian by comparison ... guided pub tours available for visitors (but message me first)
The Lexington? Trendy?
It's a scuzzy rock venue. Try Upper St if you want trendy. And The Wolseley is an old man's pub. The food isn't of the "gastro" variety.
I was going to say.
And I like it for what it is. Hipster fare it certainly isn't.
I've only
popped into these places for a cheeky lunchtime pint and that's the impression i got of them.
The Lexington had a few people with diagonal hairciuts and tattooed up the nose, talking about landingpages and such. The Wolseley was fine but I always find thai food in a pub a turn off but that's just me.
Liked the look of The Den just over the canal. But it's been gutted out!
Also the estate pub round the corner The Duchess of Kent looked promising but again closed.
I'll have fun checking out the rest of the recommendations on this thread, thanks one and all.
Last Saturday I went for my annual get-together in
Birmingham City Centre, with a few old pals.
If you are in that area, The Wellington is fantastic. It is in Bennett's Hill and is quite hard to spot at a glance. Walk along New Street (towards the fountain, not towards the Bull Ring) and it is one of the little streets on the right. And while you are at it, turn right a little earlier into Temple Street and visit Swordfish Records!
Central but with none of the 'problems' of City Centre pubs.
I miss the Wellington
In my last job I spent 3 years where most weeks had a few days in Brum. It was a surprise to my locally-based colleagues that I had found a cracking real ale pub, with whisky at sensible prices.
Perfect either for sitting quietly with a paper and a few pints or for putting the world to rights with a bunch of new friends.
Lived in and around Birmingham
most of my life and wasn't aware of this pub until El Hombre of good Scottish stock introduced it to me. The choice of beers is fantastic and all served properly - none of this chilled rubbish.
This is my kind of
thread - in your area, I would recommend the following.
- The Compton Arms, near the Union Chapel at the Highbury & Islington end of Upper St, though don't go there when Arsenal are playing at home. It's one of my favourite pubs and, allegedly, one of the models for Orwell's Moon on the Water piece.
- The Barnsbury on Liverpool Road, off Upper St, is worth going to and sister pub to the incomparable Duke of Hamilton (the nearest I have to a local)in Hampstead and thankfully saved from the greedy hands of some unscrupulous home builder recently.
- I would also recommend The Pineapple in Kentish Town, infact there are number of nice and quiet boozers in this area.
If this doesn't do the trick, can't help you.
The Compton for me too
Feels like a cosy country pub inside.
If you want to go a little further afield from N1 - the Holly Bush, in Hampstead, the Lamb, in Bloomsbury, and the Dog and Duck, in Soho, are smashing.
I like a decent gastro pub.
Honestly fail to see what's up with a nicely done-out boozer that also happens to serve good food, and might even have a girl or two in. There's a reason those old man pubs mostly died on their arse: they were fucking horrible.