No escape!

Pub no. 155 - Escape, 8th February 2013.

Is this a pub that also does curries, or a curry house that's morphed into a pub? Well, it's the former but with the garish lighting and smartly dressed Asian barstaff it does seem to have a curry house air about it. Quite literally - the spicy aromas are, well, pungent. Only relieved by the stench of the toilets if you sit too near which I did. I moved.

It's not as bad as it looks from the outside. Spacious and fairly busy with who are mostly regulars I'm guessing. They're all enjoying themselves and having a good chat. I had to enjoy a John Smiths extra keggy chill flow or whatever it's called. And the smell was making me ravenous - the kitchen smell, not the toilet smell. I picked up a menu and was seriously thinking about a takeaway. But ended up just enjoying watch Machester city get stuffed.

It's not bad old place really if you want to watch the footie, or order a curry. But I think of a few places that don't carry they same miasmas. But it does have by far & away the best fish tank in Camden, so be careful if you go for the sea-food balti - they're right by the toilets.

All uphill from here!

Pub no. 154 - The Crown and Anchor, 8th February 2013.

We're just down the road from the The Crown,  and I could pretty much copy & paste in here what I wrote there. A mixed crowd watching the rugby and decent selection of ales to choose from. Except this one is slightly bigger, and had slightly more amiable barstaff - who were muchly more tattooed as it happens. 

In front of the hand-pumps I went for Greene King IPA but was alarmed when the barmaid went off to what looked like a keg pump. Big and chromey-shiny with an illuminated sign. No no! I cried - hand-pull please! But she cheerily explained that it was a hand-pull, but Greene King had decided to tart it up and make it look hi-tec presumably for the kiddies. It was nice enough though.

Apart from the curious smell in the upstairs bar, the other notable difference from the Crown, indeed from all other pubs in Camden, is it's latitude. For at 51.51 degs N it's the most southerly pub in Camden! And at about 130 feet above sea level I'm guessing it's the lowest, although thinking about it I might have walked slightly up hill from the Crown to get here. Hmmmm. Well, it's the definitely the most southerly, so get your compass out and go tick off on of the four corners on your borough boozing map.

Half a Crown?

Pub no. 153 - The Crown, 8th February 2013.

We once had a quite a fun discussion a while back about where Seven Dials was - Covent Garden? Bloomsbury? St Giles? Well, it's definitely in Camden at least. And here's a good pub trivia question for you - How many streets lead off Seven Dials? Answer - six! Fascinating uh?

So the Crown. It's basically what you'd call a Covent Garden pub. But a decent one. Small, decent choice of beer and packed with a wide range of people watching or not watching the egg chasing. Currently France 3 - Wales 3 at half time. Thrilling stuff.

Some nice Georgian / Victorian sketches of the area on the wall. And there's not much more to tell. Would be nicer though not on a Saturday night and not when the Six Nations is on!

Sun comes out

Pub no.152 - The Sun, 8th February 2013

I can't say I'm overly familiar with top-end of Drury Lane - the 'rough' end you might say, but I don't recall ever even noticing this pub before. Fancy that.

Except it isn't all that fancy, not that that's a bad thing of course. No frills at all really. No nonsense here. Greene King IPA and Flowers Original on offer - I went for the Flowers and settled down watching the footie results on the telly.

Everyone here were English and from London it seemed, or the South East at least judging by the "faaakkkkin eeeeewwwweeelllll" type accents. I guess they were beginning a big Saturday night out round the West End. A few older couples might have been going to, or coming from, the theatre. Or just out shopping. Who knows?! Who cares?!

A properer and less pretentious pub than the White Hart a few doors up the road.

This old hart...

Pub 151. The White Hart, 9th February 2013

The self-proclaimed oldest pub in London! Well, oldest licensed premises. And it currently celebrating its 10th birthday, so go figure as the tourists might say. Anyways - intriguing enough, so let's find out more!

It's jolly affair inside, with balloons and groups of young 'uns having noisy fun. The far end looks like a sort of Greco-Roman themed room done on the cheap from a garden centre's closing down sale.

It took a little while to get served considering how quiet the bar was. I put this down to the length of time it took to mix Jack and cokes - it's not an art-form girls! But said girls were very nice.

You have to pass by all this to get to the "history board", which are normally proudly displayed outside to tempt the historically-interested of us in. But you're in as far as you can be by the time you see it here.

Disappointingly it begins with "Reputedly...". Hmmm I see. And then the only spot of originality in the pub's bio is the spelling of Jack Sheppard's name. I presume they mean he of Newgate-escapee fame, not the character in Lost. 

Anyways, I'm sure Jack and Dick did frequent here - but what about the other London pub usuals!? Nell Gwynne? Dick Whittington!? Charles Dickens? etc etc. But I doubt whether this was their final watering hole as it's mile from Tyburn and not the closest hole to Newgate. But I was the only who seemed interested in such contrived feeble heritage-twaddle so I suppose it doesn't matter much. A board with the history of St Giles would be much more interesting.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the beer was ok. So there you go. Probably a good place to hide here - I'm sure Jack Sheppard knew that already!

A friend indeed

Pub 150. The Friend at Hand, 5th February 2013.

Ahhh is that Schnorbitz I see before me!? Admittedly it's hard to tell from such a crappy photo, but it is. Schnorbitz is our friend at hand, bringing much needed alcoholic nourishments!

What we have inside though is a plain but tasteful and not boring boozer. Nice and warm. It was getting chilly out, and I shared some weather related small talk with the grown up barman - so nice to cheerful charming grown-ups behind the ramp! - actually this might be a good quick litmus test of the staff. Go into a pub making obvious indications of the weather, a mop of the brow, and pat of the arms, and shake of the brolly etc., and see if the barman offers some chit chat based up on it, which he might have done a hundred times that day but that's he his job! Sort of.

Anyways, nice beer - although I can't remember what I had. Bascially another perfectly good pub.

Swanny kaz-who?

Pub 149. The Swan, 5th February 2013.

As you can see the Swan is built on tradition, hence the traditional fish & chips and classic roast beef. Come on tourists - live the English dream!

Ifyou're not too annoyed by addressed as 'buddy' at the end of every sentence the Swan is nice enough. Ordinary enough, like many others really but there's nothing wrong with it really.  Good beers.

One thing of note though is it's the only pub I can think of that has a working water tap on the bar. Bring me a scotch buddy!

Larder louts

Pub 148. The Queen's Larder,  5th February 2013.

Whether or not you believe the story behind the pub's name - Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, kept food here while he was treated for madness nearby, which does sound plausible - it'd be nice if they kept an apostrophe here too. I beginning to think the opposite of a grocer's apostrophe is the publican's apostrophe.

It's small and cosy and very nice. A grown-up behind the bar - she was pleasant and efficient. A young man came in looking for a job and was sent away with the one syllable that necessary. I had an Greene King IPA which was nice. Was going to perch myself in one corner next to two attractive young ladies working their way down a bottle of red but was warned that the empty banquette seat there was soaking wet. So I settled in the other corner next to some noisy chatty Germans.

Odd collection of clowns above the bar, and the music was courtesy of Now That's What I Call 80s & 90s MOR Easy Listening vol. 49.

Nice place.

The Northumberland Arms

Pub 147. The Northumberland Arms, 4th February 2013.

Ever wondered what happened to the Chinese DVD man? Well, he's alive and well and despite the onslaught of online competition from Netflix and the like he's still lugging around his hold-all full of discs, and was doing well in the Northumberland Arms. The lad at the next table to me got himself a good half a dozen little gems. Probably not even available on Netflix yet. 

A real no nonsense no frills boozer. A man's pub. And a working man's pub at that. Even the one woman in here had short hair. I didn't notice an ale until I'd already ordered - they had Directors on.
Still that's not to say it's horrible. I didn't strike up any conversation - although I'm sure I might have if I'd lingered at the bar. The locals knew the locals. And they had lots of sports on. Check out the big tube-projector - not of many of them left these days!

And the workshop next door is doing up a little steam loco. So there you do; The Northumberland Arms. It's nice to see a unreconstructed "old fashioned" (for want of a better word) real boozer's boozer in the middle of an increasingly poncified (for no want of a better word) London.

Gunning for it

Pub 146. The Gunmakers. 4th February 2013.

A quick one in here I thought and then home. The last time I went in I quite liked it. It felt as old as it looked from the outside. However on entering I noticed they done something terrible... they'd done it up!! Bah. Gone was the dark wood and velvet stools (or that kind of thing - it was some time ago) and in was cream and Ikea type stuff. Bah. Oh well. A quick half then and home.

When I went in I was the only person there, and the poor old bored barmaid looked so pleased to see me to break her monotony and - let's be honest - as she was very pretty I though I'd better have a pint. A chat broke out, a regular came in - I was sat in his seat, but that's ok! More chat broke out. Another pint was had. Another barmaid came in, and a tasting session started for the other barmaid who was new. More chat broke out. More pints were had. The first barmaid went home. More people came in - at one got very busy. The manager came in. He was very nice. More chatting. More pints were had. More chatting. More pints. Then eventually home.

What a cracking pub, and what lovely people. I just wish they hadn't done it up. Oh well. That won't put me off.

The Argyle

Pub 145. The Argyle. 4th February 2013.

Boring and a bit souless, although they've tried hard - so it's not unpleasant. It's almost is if they've tried to make an old-fashioned looking pub in the corner of a new block of flats. Oh, wait - they have.

From what I could see all the other punters were tourists, eager to try 'famous' / 'traditional' fish & chips. (I can't quite remember how they described it, but it's one of those kind of places).
Far too windy for the balcony today, but it might be nice on a summer's day I suppose.

Nice beer.

Hat's off

Pub 144. The Sir Christopher Hatton, 4th February 2013

Spacious, nice, every effort made to ensure that there's nothing to dislike rather than anything really to like. Nice beer, nice furniture, nice decor, nice atmosphere. Nice bits of local history on the walls - mainly about the eponymous Sir Chris but also Charles Dickens. People no-one could dislike!

Two things I did dislike though. Every time someone came in a gale seemed to rip through the pub - ok, it was rather windy outside, but other pubs manage! And the bloody telephone. The shrillest, loudest, busiest - and most-rings-before-answered telephone in Camden.