Avuncular Albert

Pub 58. The Albert, 19th April 2012.

When I'm reasonably rich, before I can't quite afford to live in Hampstead, I think I'll choose to live round Primrose Hill somewhere. And the Albert could well be my local.

 Most of the other pubs round here have been gastrofied or fancified or otherwise spoilt to de-pub and appeal to local money. But not the Albert, it's still a fine, nice, ordinary, good, honest, decent boozer.
Something about the beers suggest that's it's a Greene King house... so a pint of IPA it was. I can't remember how much it was though, certainly upwards of £3.50 though. But hey - I'll be quite rich when I'

People were sat round chatting, couples at tables, mates at the bar, undisturbed by loud music. A telly quietly showed a football match tucked out of the view of those not interested. I think food is available but it certainly wasn't the priority. And of course I didn't try it - I'm a drinker not an eater!

The bar staff are friendly and the pub is lovely. Stop in on your way back from the park, thus avoiding the hubbub of the Queens the other way, and you'll won't complain. But be sure not to confuse this with its near name-sake... or you might complain!

Hey Joe!

Pub 57. Joe's 12th April 2012.

Joe's! Hey kids, let's America is cool! Don't you want it to be like America here? At least they spelt 'liquor' right. Vintage sounds? I bet they don't play any Herb Alpert or Middle of the Road.

 

Joe's is basically just a plain and simple bar, doing plain and simple beer and food, for plain and simple folk who want a plain and simple late night along the Chalk Farm road, after a strenuous day tat-shopping on the market and posing by bronze horses, and finding the Hawley Arms is too full, and the Lock Tavern is far too hip.

I had a pint of Hophead, as that was the choice. The bar staff were busy being nonchalant and mixing cocktails. I didn't see any hot-dogs for sale as yet. Maybe they're under the counter.

It was early-ish on a Friday night when I went in so it was fairly quiet. I expect it will get rammed later on, as it's open very late - I think for no entrance charge. The cool DJ was playing cool music, and pleasingly his DJ thing was on wheels, so hopefully it can be wheeled away when it gets too loud or annoying. I bet they don't though.

This one for the kids - if it was in a tin, on it it would say "still serving beer after everywhere has shut".  It should also say "heaviest doors in Camden", as that would be a nice boast.

Starship Enterprise

Pub 56. The Enterprise, 12th April 2012.

Once upon a time not very long ago the Enterprise was decorate in gay colourful stripes on the outside, which reminded me of a Striper bar. But now it's sadly dull hip black and looks more like a stripper bar. Although thankfully inside it's rather pleasant. Not too over-done, not too scruffy. And could this be the only Enterprise inn in the borough that's not an Enterprise Inn??

Predictable beers, that that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think I had a Ghost Ship, at 4.5% and I'm sure it was ok or I'd remember. Probably...

It was a typical Friday night - busy, loud, dark, and not overly pleasant. The bar-staff were nice though, I shared a smile with one over a elderly chap who was dozing against one of the partitions they have at the bar.

DJ Sue provided decent but dull tunes that pub DJs seem to think that will make everyone think she's cool. 50s rock n roll, 60s r&b, you know the score. I expect some Motown, the Clash and Blondie were not far off being played. No-one was dancing, indeed there wouldn't be room and DJ Sue's table took up room for another good 10 drinkers or so, and I bet there wouldn't be one person fewer in there is she stayed at home. Pub DJs uh??

"Camden's premier rock toilet" as James May once described it may be a little harsh, but it's best avoided on a Friday night. Very pleasant on a sunny afternoon - before DJ Sue gets there.

Swiss roll

Pub 55.Ye Olde Swiss Cottage, 12th April 2012

What an odd place to find a Swiss cottage, in the middle of ummm... Swiss Cottage! Actually what an odd place to find a pub - in the middle of 8 lanes of traffic. The beer garden here is an experience!
Once you've dodged all the traffic and got in you'll find a fairly standard Sammy Smiths house, a little tired perhaps but none-the-less charming for it. Although this building isn't very 'ye olde' at all. I'm not sure when it was built, but it wasn't 1804 alas.

At the bar there's the usual Sam Smith's choices, ie. not a lot. I mistakenly asked for a pint of 'Museum bitter' only to be told by the grumpy aging barman that such a thing never existed. And then was asked for £2.90, I thought Sam's places were always rediculously cheap! Oh well, it was nice enough.

Last time I came in here I seem to recall there being lots of different rooms, but I had a quick shufty round this time and couldn't see them. Maybe I imagined then, but it did seem smaller this time. Or most probably I just didn't see them.

Although it wasn't too busy - a few football fans and a few Japanese tourists - it was quite roudy. So after a few sips I left my stool at the bar in the lounge and walked round to the tap-room.

Much nicer! I had the place to myself, apart from one other who was briefly sat at the bar, and a couple of lads going in to the members-only pool room, it was just me and the barman. Again, not a young man but a lot more sociable than the fellow next door. He kept referring to the tenants by merely their first names, as if I'd knew who he was talking about, he called everyone 'boy' in that Cockney way that sounds like 'boooiiay'. I like these things - no false niceness in here! Splendid. When I had emptied my pint he immediately reached for it with a 'another one?', as a barman should! Well done Charlie. But I had to get on. As I got up to leave I realised I'd left my bag in the lounge! Uh-oh! But it was still there on the floor at the feet of the man now sat on the stool I had been - 'I was wondering whose that was...' he said.

Ye Olde Swiss Cottage is well worth a look, if you find yourself in the middle of the Finchley Road. Go in the tap room though, unless the balcony is open! Imagine those apline views...

Polaris

Pub 54. The North Star, 14th April 2012.

It's not often I'm walking down the Finchley Road, which is why I've never been in the North Star before. People sometimes seem to forget that it's still Camden out here, and indeed for bit further out too. But that's for another day.  Let's pop in here today.

 

The barmaid didn't seem overly pleased to see me. And there's no reason why she should. The Woodford's Wherry was very nice again. It's a good brew this one. The stacks of plastic glasses looked a bit ominious behind the bar... but of course the tube station across the road is just a couple of stops from Wembley - and this was cup semi-final day. Good thinking North Star.

Basically the North Star feels like a Wetherspoons but with very loud music and fewer beers. And serves its purpose perfectly well. I'm quite amused though that they don't actually know the exact year when it was built. "Circa 1850"?? I love to know more... maybe it is a total mystery. But I suspect no-one inside knows, or cares. But why should you on your way back from Wembley?

Old soaks

Pub 53. The Old Oak, 13th April 2012

A real local's pub for local people, from the huge local esate round the back. It looks quite big on the outside, but due to the toilets taking up a large block inside and the bar & kitchen running the full length of the pub it's not really that big inside. And it was quite busy with the kind of people who are probably very nice, and won't bother you if you don't bother them, but if you're some daft little twerp writing a blog about going in pubs and that's why your holding a camera-phone up in their faces, they probably wouldn't be very impressed. Or that's my impression. And that's why there's only two similar and rather useless little photos that I'd tried to sneak from over my Camden New Jounral. 

First thing... the Old Oak is loud. The jukebox was booming! How anyone manages to have conversation in here I don't know, but there were. It was only me not chatting away.
I was quite expeciting this gaff to have no ale, but I was wrong. Bomdadier and London Pride were on, and at £3.10 the Pride was perfectly ok. If I had 20mins to kill waiting for a train across the road from Gospel Oak station I'd probably pop in for another one.

On my way out I noticed that the chap here in the baseball hat had dropped his phone, and it was lying by his large dog's mouth. I stooped to pick it up for him, and suddenly occurred to me that it might the dog's toy! But no, it was his. He was very appreciative and his dog gently nuzzled and slobbered on my hand. You see, nothing to be scared of!

The Dublin Castle.

Pub 52. The Dubin Castle, 12th April 2012.

Oh the dear old Dublin Castle. Reliable stalwart of Camden Town's music & drinking recent past.
And apologies for the awful photos, too dark and and too shakey! It was late...
The Dublin Castle used to be the place to go for a late drink in Camden Town, if you didn't want to pay to get in the Barfly or Underworld or some other club of horrors. Even the 2 quid they used to charge for a late entry on a weekend was worth to get those all important extra two pints!

The three ales are decent enough. I went for a Theakstons Lightfoot, just a swift one before bed. It was nice a quiet, and around 11.30ish. It can get very very busy, so it was rather pleasant to almost have the place to oneself! I'm sure the barstaff might have appreciated a little more to do though... you know how time drags. But they were their usually cheery selves, with a nice hello! how are you? even though I've not been in for yonks.

The lovely quiet calm almost empty Dublin Castle is a nice place. Comfy and relaxing, with the just a few people sitting around chatting. All very pleasant. Although I did feel sorry for the band out the back, play to two old men. All part of the rock 'n' roll story I suppose! But then two foreign girls came up to the bar and asked for some music. Agh! They were told to go to the juke-box. Agh! "How much is it?" they asked. A quid. Agh! Per song!? No... for five or seven or however many. So on came some music, and on came some enthusiastic singing and dancing with gay abandon from the two young things.

A rather endearing it was too. They weren't even drunk bless them. As I passed them on the way to loo, I commented such, with something like "good music!" or "I see you're dancing!" or something. My chat-up lines are legendary. Anways, next thing you know I was being made to dance and sing with them amd choose songs and what-have-you.  Daniela and something-or-other there names were. And they both as pretty as pictures and charming as you like. A fraction of my age of course. But that's not the point. What lovely girls.

Several more pints ensued, one of their boyfriends turned up, who was also very pleasant. The place filled up. We all had a jolly good time. And after drinking more than I intended, I eventually wandered off home much later than I intended. And that is the magic of the Dublin Castle. Mind you, a few years ago someone completely unprovoked gave me a black eye to die for outside. Still don't who or why to this day. But never mind, the nice times always outweigh the bad times here by a very large factor.

What's in a name?

Pub 51. Earl of Camden, 12th April, 2012.

The Earl of Camden used be a rather dull Hogshead, but now it isn't. Well it's not a Hogshead any more. Well, it's not called a Hogshead. I want to quite like the name - it's a good way of showing the local yoofs and tourists that Camden Town, and therefore Camden is actually named after someone. Although oddly the man it's all named after wasn't called Camden at all. But he took his title from someone who was called Camden, and didn't live too far away a couple of 100 years earlier. So this pub is trying to named after Charles Pratt, who owned the land round here, and sold it off for development and named the new town after himself as he was the 1st Earl Camden. Not the Earl of Camden you'll note. But enough cod-history and pedantry. Let's go in.

 

Not a huge choice, and the barman didn't have a clue what the Triple B was or where it was from. "We've ha a lot of new ales lately" he explained. Anyways, it was very nice.

The pub was busy, and lively. It was loud but not deafening, and it being quite roomy it didn't feel uncomfortable. They have Sky (et al) sports, and free bands some times. Cheap burgers. And I'm sure I saw a sign saying that ale was £1.99 all day Monday - "Mondale", see what they did they? Might be worth checking out, if I do remember the sign correctly.

It's mainly tourists drinking in here, but there's no reason for locals not to pop in either. It's a perfectly decent pub. Nothing fantastic - but certainly nothing to dislike about it either.

The Lion does not sleep tonight

Pub 50. The Lion and Unicorn, 12th April 2012.

I'd not been in since they did it up a couple of years ago, back then it was an OK-ish nothing special locals' backstreet boozer. I've got a couple of mates who go in here quite a bit and they really like it.

 

No surprises at the bar, except the Sharps Cask Pilsner. I've had cask lager before and to me it's just tasted like warm, flat lager. But being the adventurous type I decided to try the Pils. But it went off just before I could get to it. Oh well, probably a good thing! I had the Trinity instead, which was fine if I remember correctly.

The pub is nice, in a trying-very-hard tarted-up way. And the clientelle seemed to match. It seemed to full of exciteable posh women. Hooray Henriettas. It was all very loud, and busy and a bit over-whelming for someone like me seeking a bit peace of quiet to enjoy ones pint.

 

Two things caught my eye though. I was tempted by their 'freshly made' pickled eggs. And I like the beware the thieves sign, that would no doubt have the old feminists swinging their handbags.

So, from an nothing special old back street boozer, it's now a nothing special tarted up gastro pub. We come from nothing and go back to nothing. It's got the theatre upstairs though, but I didn't hang around nearly long enough to watch a play.

Spread the love

Pub 49. The Spread Eagle, 4th April 2012.

Ahhh the Spread Eagle. A super pub - and I do frequent it quite a bit I must say. A proper decent boozer, with no frills or fancy sillyness. Some might say drab or souless but I say uncontrived and unpretentious.

 

It being a Young's house it's got all their regulars on, draught and in bottles. And a couple of regularly changing guests too. On this occasion I went for the Redemption Pale Ale, although normally I just stick with the ordinary bitter. The pub grub is godo too - don't forget your Wedge card for a discount!

My favourite barmaid!

The barstaff are nice and friendly, and thankfully treat you like a mate and a drinker, rather than a customer. An imporant difference! Pubs are not beer shops. There's normally few distractions here - no jukebox and the tellies are only on for big sporting events. Although the karaoke and the quiz night can be a bit intrusive if that's not why you've gone there. Come summer there is plenty of seating outside though.

On this occasion the entertainment was provided by DJ Wheelie Bag, and his dancing girls. Much more pleasing to the ear than the karaoke.

DJ Wheelie Bag.

The Spread-quarters is a fine pub indeed, and in the middle of Camden Town a decent boozer is oddly hard to find. So make a note!