Rather be shot

Pub 174. The Colonel Fawcett.

I've never liked this pub. Didn't like when it was the Camden Brewing Company, didn't like when it was the Camden Arms, and don't like it now. An over-styled, woefully-hip, sorry excuse for something that is neither gastro nor for drinking. It's just for people who know they're very trendy to sit around and talk very loudly.

It's named after the last man in Britain to die fighting a duel - or that's what they want you to think Have a look here, in particular the years 1843 and 1845 for example. But why let facts get in the way of a good story?? These kids want entertaining - not informing or educating!

But what it doesn't tell you is that at first the eponymous Colonel, on being shot, was taken to the Brecknock Arms, much nearer the site of the duel, but the butler there wouldn't let them stay. So instead they went to the The Camden Arms instead - which, if you believe the pub's patter was already called The Colonel Fawcett - where he spent his last two days with a fever drifting in & out of consciousness (doubtful he was "drinking gin and entertaining his friends" as the pub makes out), before dying from his wounds.

So there you go, this pub is the 2nd choice of a dying man who had no real claim to fame. Suits it!

But it's always busy, so good for them.

Very convenient!

Pub 173. The Flask, 25th April 2013.

I think everyone knows and loves the Flask, and can get very busy. But catch it when it's quiet and it's a real Georgian corker. Once upon a time all the old pubs on the City to Highgate road through olde Kentish Town would have been like this, The Mother Red Cap, The Castle,  The Assembly House, The Vine and the Bull & Last would have all been multi-roomed 'higgledy-piggledy' like this, but they were all rebuilt by those eager-to-improve Victorians. Thankfully the Flask escaped ancient modernisation.

The food is good, and the beer is fine. I think I had some black IPA which was very tasty and wasn't terribly overpriced.

I've been here many times, and don't really need an excuse to come back. But on this occasion I on the look out for a feature that is possibly unique in Camden (although I'm sure I saw one actually being used in a pub in Kilburn once...). I've missed it on the last few visits, either distracted, forgetful or looking in the wrong place.
In an episode of Radio 4's Voices from the Old Bailey that actually came from the vaulted pub cellars (which I'd love to see!) they mentioned that the pub still as pissoirs at the bar, where in a less-urinary fussy age Georgian gentlemen, or perhaps just plain old men, would relieve themselves at the bar, where stood. Possibly replenishing at the same time as they emptied. As the BBC's Amanda Vickery calls it - "the piss channel", and pity the bar-wench.
But I'd not seen it before... even though it's not hidden. It's at the bottom of the closed (or at least rarely used) parlour bar in the middle of the pub. And if you look down as you pass by its fine bulls-eye sash windows, there it is! But sadly clearly no longer in use. Progress they call it!

Heaven and hell?

Pub 172. The Angel Inn, 25th April 2013

Warm and busy and bright on the outside - cool and quiet and bright on the inside. Very nice.

Not cheap - I think my half didn't leave much from 2 quid - but it's strong on the gastropub side of things here. But having said that seems to strike up a good balance of drinking pub / gastropub, which isn't necessarily a great boast but it could be worse. The Shipyard Independence was spot on.

It's old.

Pub 171. The Old Red Lion, 17th April 2013

 

How do you know when a pub is old? It has the word 'old' in the name. That's how. And surely a pub that calls itself old will be wanting to tell you all about its oldness, and when the likes of Pepys and Turpin drank there. Here you'd never know as they keep their history quiet on the inside (unlike the barmaid's eagerness to close the bar hatch each time she went through...) as there's none of these pub-bios that are so popular these days in old pubs. Shame. Oh well. But I suppose it's only Victorian so the gents mentioned may have never drank in here at all! Shocking for an old pub. But I digress.

The Timothy Taylor's Golden Best was nice. The interior very pleasant, lots of wood - like an old pub should be. The pub's small but was quiet, cool and relaxing. I sat by a large window watching the hubbub of High Holborn rush by.

All rather nice really, but I bet it gets busy.

The Hatton 'un?

Pub no.170  - The Hat and Tun, 17th April 2013

 

The last time I came here it had the most disappointing sign a pub window could ever display - "Closed for private party". I think that public houses should not be allowed to do this, and should still have to open the minimum hours they're licensed for. But with so many colourful jaunty blackboards and sophisticated looking posters to ring or email Jacinta or some such exotic sounding name, they're clearly very keen to have you hire the place out. I shall forgive them as long as they don't do it again.

Anyways, that little moan aside it's all very nice. Lots of wood and hunting memorabilia make it look as old as it is and as rustic as you could get this close to the City. The food looked and smelled very nice, but as they have one of odious 'open plan' kitchens they'd be daft not to have it smell nice as there's no escaping it. The Adnam's Southwold wasn't very nice though, although not not-nice enough not to finish it mind, I'm not wasting a £1.95 half!

As an aside I'm sure the name is made up... even though it's the original name. "The Hat and Tun" on the land of Mr Hatton...? Hmmm. Or was there much hat making here before the jewellers took over. Still no matter - it's still waaaaay better than the pointlessly contrived "Deux Beers" moniker that it used to rejoice under when it was an awful hip 'n' trendy cocktail-wine-bar type thing. And indeed the pub now is waaaay better too.

Purple faze

Pub no. 169 - The Purple Turtle.

Mainly a music venue or awful night-club type place, I've definitely been to the Purple Turtle in the dim and distant past just for drinks and meeting friends for a night out - and not having to pay to get in, ie. like a normal pub, or rather bar. I think it might have been in its previous incarnation as the Kao Cafe, but this was nearly 15 years ago so I can't really remember.

I've been back since for gigs, and they've been good. But that's all it's good for really.

Unsaintly behaviour

Pub no. 168 - St. Aloysius Social Club

When is a social club not a social club...? When it's the St Aloysius Social Club, as although it called itself a social club technically it wasn't. You could just pop in for a drink, and was particularly popular with the Somers Town locals and the postmen from the Royal Mail depot at Euston.
It was also popular with jumble salers & music-lovers, in particular at the good old Tapestry nights, which introduced a new generation of trendy young things to the delights of light & bitter.

Popular that is until Father Michael O’Boy took over the church to which it is attached and from which it takes its name. He took it upon himself to rid the church of its bar and its largely secular gatherings. I believe the bar & function room, and all the wonderful 60s / 70s decor - presumably original as the church was built in the late 1960s have gone forever.  Word is that O'Boy will be off sooner or later to another bigger church at some point as he works his way up the Catholic ladder. I wonder if he'll be gone if & when HS2 put this outside his front-door?

A real shame.

You noisy Anchors!

Pub 167. The Hope and Anchor, 4th April 2013.

This could be a very pleasant, if basic, pub. Fine looking exterior. Warm and comfy enough interior. One ale on... although I can't remember what it is now. It was something familiar and decent but not exceptional.
The barmaid - although polite - did check 4 or 5 times if I really did want a half, with a series of peculiar hand-movements that made her look like she was doing a Buck's Fizz dance.

I popped to the loo, leaving my paper and glass of beer at the bar. I came back and a bloke had come and decided to stand right where I had been and put his bag down on top of my paper while very precisely ordering some crisps. You can see above how busy the bar was. I gave him a "you stupid man" look as I slid my paper from under his detritus, you stupid man.

I do have a few questions about this pub tho. Why is the website address for the welder on the flower boxes outside back-to-front? Why do you have beer-engines between the windows?
And why oh why oh why oh why is your jukebox so bloody loud?!?! Painfully loud. Koko next door or the Purple Turtle across the road are likely to be quieter options. The place was nigh on empty. Why do pubs do this?? You stupid people.
The volume of the jukebox means I never want to go back here, and why the Hope & Anchor doesn't quite make it as 'pleasant pub'.

Hopefully not good.

166. The Cape of Good Hope, 6th April 2013

I walk past the Cape of Good Hope most days, and I must admit I have never been tempted to go in. Even on a sunny day with the front open, and pavement benches thronged with tracksuited lagerers I managed to walk past. Of course I wish I had now - as we're finding, many awful looking pubs actually turn out to be fine, often splendid, places with amiable and chatty clientele. And a pint of lager on a scorching hot inner-city afternoon isn't always an awful thing.

But with its record for under-age & after-hours drinking its location next door to a police station (well, with a large pile of cargo-containers-cum-tool-sheds inbetween) couldn't could hardly have been appreciated - nor helpful!

The sad thing is that the Cape of Good Hope has been here since 1851, and like so much of the borough was "estate-ized" in the 1960s, indeed along with its neighbouring police station, and two fine buildings were lost forever. I suspect now that we've also lost another a pub forever - it could hardly have been the pride of Punch Taverns' portfolio.

Just goes to show that if you want to visit every pub in Camden, you really cannot dilly-dally. Perhaps Punch will do something with it, it's in a prime spot for a boozer.

But it's funny how some pubs become a cause-celebre... The Bull & Gate, Crown & Goose, Pineapple and now the Victoria - but others, The Neptune, Parr's Head, The Old Oak (sort of), close down with not a murmur from anyone. Pity the poor working class drinker.


 **UPDATE** 28th June 2013.
 Just passing the other day I noticed the doors open and things going on. This evening I noticed people inside drinking. So I popped in. It's back open, and is being running by the (ex?) manager of the Devonshire Arms, and is aiming for a similar clientele - it may even be called "The New Dev". Make of that what you will. Skulls and crucifixes are scattered about, and the music is loud, and umm... dark. So in the absence of anything more potable I went for the Gaelic black stuff.

The barmaid - Lydia I think her name was (I hope!) - was lovely, a real charmer. And if nothing else they have the finest collection of chillies in any boozer on the manor. So let's drink to a pub re-opening!

Richard who??

Pub 165. The Cobden, 4th April 2013



The greyest pub in Camden? Perhaps the owner has a mate who works in the battleship paint stores...? And what happened to the Arms? This used to be the Cobden Arms, I'm sure. Anyways. The Cobden (Arms), named after a bloke who has one of the biggest statues in Camden and a Camden school named after him but as far as I know has nothing whatsoever to do with Camden.

But if that was going to put you off for some reason then don't let it. Down this end - the rougher less touristy end - of Camden High Street there's not a great choice for the discerning drinker. Much like the other end really, but at least this end is lighter on tourists. The Cobden's not a bad little place. Not a bad little pint of Greene King IPA, not a bad little bar maid, not a bad little atmosphere - and not a bad little heater over the door. Everyone seemed to be huddled over their tables as in top secret  discussions, but I suppose that's the nature of drinking at a dining table.
There were some drunken rowdy Scot at the bar, possibly on a stag night - one was dressed as a cock & balls. Some student types sat by me - I wonder if they found bench too high for the table too - and started perusing the omnipresent Thai food menu. I left before they ordered the spicy sizzling stink drove me out. But I'll no doubt be back. Who-ever he is.

Probably worth a mention is arguably Camden's finest bluegrass night - The Blue Lion Sessions - is here twice a month. Yeeha!

It's the Wheat Sheaf!!!!

Pub 164. Belushi's, 4th April 2013

What a stupid name for a pub. I guess they figured it would mean more to young hip & happening tourists and weekenders who couldn't give a fig where they are or what it's called.

Still on this occasion it wasn't too bad. The Deuchars IPA was fine. The bar-staff / bar-staff hangers on were getting very excited the upcoming "Jager Night". As they attempted to hoist a large Jagermeister banner the conversation went like this: "Awww that's cool!", "Cool!", "Cool isn't it?", "That is cool.", "Cool eh?". "Wooow that's big." "Big!", "Big isn't it?", "That is big.", "Big eh?". Luckily I'd taken a book.

Belushi's can also claim to have the ugliest, plastickest, uncomfortablest sofas in Camden. Wipe clean is clearly important here.

There's worst places I supposes, but I'm sure I wouldn't be saying that if I was here on a Saturday night.