Coco-nutters

Pub 268. Coco Bamboo, 9th June 2014.

Is it a pub? Or isn't it? What is a pub? When does a pub become a bar and is a bar the same as a pub?! If it serves the same purpose and provides the same service as a pub is it basically a pub? What if you changed the name to The Old King's Head, put Tetley's on and stuck a dartboard in - then does a bar become a pub? These are questions I've pondered over a lot... and there's no real easy answer. What is a pub is a grey area. A "proper pub" or "old man's pub" or "back street boozer" are all pretty obvious and usually what people mean, but it's not that easy. According to me.

In Camden Town there's many bars where you can go and get a drink and for whom providing drink is their main business, ie. not food, not music, not a hotel, not a leisure centre, etc. etc., just a like a pub does. But most of them are still clearly not anything like pubs, however you define it. I'm thinking of places like Solo, Bar Gansa, Made in Brasil, Bar Vinyl, Proud (which today had run out of beer - the ultimate pub sin!), Spiritual (complete with moody look from the barmaid inside) and the Tunnel Bar, all of which have taken my dollar in the past incidentally - and Silk Bar which hasn't - but although worth a mention as "establishments to have a drink" they cannot really feature in the list of Camden pubs. I'm sure there's others too. And indeed some may argue that some of the places in this compendium are not pubs, but it's my game and my rules. Anyways...

But one or two just manage to sneak into the very outskirts of the grey area that is what-makes-a-pub, and one is Coco Bamboo. Strictly for tourists, two choices of lager and endless mojitos and a chap playing flamenco style guitar. Not my cup of tea, but all rather pleasant a hot summer's day.

The magic has gone

Pub 267. Potion.

Sadly never got a chance to go in here. Well, I did but everytime I looked in it looked so awful I put help but put it off for another day. Black, barren and cold looking - I guess they'd call it stylish - all they offered were lagers and cocktails. I'm sure it was better when it was the Yorkshire Grey, and who knows - may be it will re-open as a proper pub again one day. But as the downstairs is full of slum-landlord style beds and chests-of-drawers at the moment, that doesn't look good. Then a large hand at the end of a hi-viz sleeve appeared from nowhere and covered up the hole in the whitewash I was peering through. Magic!

2015 update: It's re-opened. Actually it re-opened a few weeks ago but I've only just dared (well, bothered) go in now. It looks more enticing than Potion did, but Potion never looked all that enticing.

It's a Simmons, and they've branded it like a fun-fair unlike the urban chic of it's Camden Town sister. Which I suppose I'll have to visit too. Save that treat for another day.

And with its mismatched furniture, wacky lamps, pointless snooker scoreboard... traffic lights?? etc., it sure looks like fun.

No ale, but the Meantime pump tells you exactly where you are. It doesn't tell how much it costs though, which £2.60 a half. I later found out they had bottles of Pride.

I got chatting to lovely young ladies, which is worth mentioning because it doesn't happen often. I showed them how to type on the antique novelty typewriter on the bar.
Downstairs is another bar, and intriguingly behind a secret passage! Or next door's cellar.

Powerless

Pub 266. Power's Bar, 3rd June 2014.

Used to have some cracking nights here back in the late 90s when I lived not too far away. It was the one of the 'cool' places, dark and quirky, and bands on and not at all like all the other real boozers round about. Just what us cool 20-somethings were after. I don't think I'd like it now though.
But no matter anyways, as it's shut. For good it seems - as is explained here. Sort of.

Brondes medal

Pub 265. The Brondes Age, 3rd June 2014.

When you say "Brondesbury" you do indeed pronounce it "Bronze-bree" but when presented with the word "brondes" I would pronounce it "brondess", so it took me while to figure out the punning title of this pub. And a more random and feeble pun I've not heard in any Camden pub name.

What a funny place. Looks like an old petrol station at first. But apparently it's a parade of old shops knocked into one. And inside it's a combo of club/diner/bar, and seems very foreign... something American about it. Looking an ale on offer lead to a predictable disappointment so I had the Guinness.

The bar staff were busy entertaining themselves and the odd hanger-on at the end of the bar. But one nice thing... the doors were wide open and the smell from the smokers was drifting in, making it smell like pubs used to. Didn't seem much else like a pub though.

Black beauty

Pub 264. The Black Lion, 3rd June 2014.

Like other pubs on Kilburn High Road I hadn't been in here since I lived round here some 15 years ago or so. And back then I remember it being a huge old gin palace, with much fading beauty and a lovely ceiling.

Well, now the beauty has unfaded, and the ceiling is as lovely as ever. And it's still big, but it feels very empty, with the large sofas taking up far too much room and being impractical as ever.

The wood I'm sure can be called sumptuous, and unsurprisingly it's listed.

But the downside is it's a bit cool. A "best Sunday roast in town" kind of pub. No ale on, in fact only two draft pumps. One Camden lager, and the other anonymous one was Guinness. When I asked I was told as if I should have known. The barmaid wasn't even surprised at my surprised when I was told this huge bar only had room for two pumps. Apparently, as I read later, it's because of some fall-out with the brewery / pubco over the beer tie. So good for them!

It is indeed a beautiful pub, but I don't think I'll be rushing back. The numerous upside-down lampshades in the windows tell you how super-trendy they are here. One thing amused me though, who-ever put up the relief of the locals of old taking the waters from the Kilburn Wells had possible been taking something a little stronger himself!

The Crawling Camel

Pub 263. The Sir Colin Campbell, 3rd June 2014.

It's funny who they used to name pubs after back in the old days, and who remembers Sir Colin Campbell now? I was hoping it might be named after this chap, but it turns out it's this one - he of the curious dromedarian nickname. Just goes to show what a big deal the Crimea was back then I suppose.

Two bars here, I think I was in the lounge with the saloon being the other side of the bar. The barmaid was nice and friendly, and the Guinness was nice. And the all important net curtains blocked out the outside world without it being to dingy. And remembering the locals the telly was tuned in to BBC Northern Island. Handy to catch up with the local news from Belfast!

Best of all was the fortune teller - I look forward to being surrounded by affection soon, and if I have to go back to the Campbell to get it that's no bad thing.

Roll out the barrel

Pub 262. The Cooper's Arms, 3rd June 2014.

Ah this is more like it! Carpet, wood panels, properly upholstered furniture and no juke-box! Good stuff. No ale though, so the Guinness had to do.

Cue man at the bar who'd already mimed a toy boxing fight when I walked past him to enquire if I was Irish. He then didn't shut up for the next 10 minutes, repeating the same things over and over - his age, his daughters age, and something about my jacket. Oh - and "I'm joking!".

I got bored and went to sit down. So he picked on some lady say at the bar, and they had some heated argument about where he was born. He was annoying most folks by now and the land lady had to tell him to shut the F up. And another punter apologised to me for him! He was harmless really though, all good pub fun I suppose. And this is a good pub - if only they put an ale or two on. A cosy, friendly peaceful escape from the hustle-bustle of the Kilburn High Road

Also, I reckon it's the only pub in Camden where you can clearly see another pub from the gents' window.  A pub pub-toilet fact!

Ker-ching!

Pub 261. The Old Bell, 3rd June 2014.

It's a rainy afternoon in Kilburn, and the Old Bell is rammed. Rammed full of old men. Old men drinking lager or keg bitter, watching horse racing and laughing loudly. Just as a pub should be in the afternoon!

A pint of Courage was £2.10, yup. £2.10. Not sure if that was a special offer, but not bad eh? I don't know if I'd be tempted by the two meals for £7.45 though but no wonder the place was full. Mind you I didn't see many other people on the ale.

For one scary moment loud music started blaring out - but it just some tinkering being done on the roll done screen for the horse racing. Thankfully it was only a brief assault on the shell-likes, and then they went the whole hog by turning it off all together. No doubt much to the annoyance of the old chaps with their Racing Posts spread out in front of them.

No love lost

Pub 260. The Old Red Lion, 3rd June 2014

 

I remember when I lived round here that this was one of the roughest pubs in the area. Well, for "rough" read "untarted up", and as a fresh-faced 20-something never went in.

However I did go in during its later incarnation as The Westbury, but didn't like it much. Fancy sounding lager in big glasses, large chunky tables that look like they've come out of a castle kitchen with big chunky candles on which look like they've come out of a castle dungeon. Big low sofas and a general air of "we're so cool and hip and fancy but still a pub - we've got everything." but it wasn't really my cup of tea, and not most other people's either which is why it's something mysterious called "Love and Liquor". It was open when I was passing today, but it looked like a strip club. Turns out that it's a "Bar, club and party venue." which doesn't sound like my cup of anything.

Oh how I miss the Old Red Lion (one of the oldest pubs in Camden) - even though I never went. Use it or lose it.

Wood is half ful.

Pub 259. The Fulwood, 1st April 2014.

By the time you've managed to reach the bar in the Fulwood, you're certainly ready for a drink if you weren't before - it's a long walk. And sadly they've only got lagers when you've got there.
It also gives the two drunken suited buffoons a good run-up so one could walk into me with full force. The table of suited lads were a bit boorish as they tried to out-piss-take each other so I sat outside.

The passage it's on is quite pleasant. The two drunk blokes after visiting the toilet together gave their bottle of wine to a couple of girls and staggered off. I drank my lager as the evening warmth faded. And went home.

Taking a bung.

Pub 258, Davy's Bar & Grill. 1st April 2014.

Yikes! A wine bar?! But one apparently offering real ales. And it doesn't look to wine-bary so let's take a look. On asking for the ales, the very nice and smartly dressed wine-barman told me it was down stairs I was after. So down to the Bung Hole Cellar I went.

This is the door straight down to the cellars. Impressively plain for such a fancy place.

Anyways, once down stairs we find ourselves in what is for all intents and purposes a proper pub. Of the two ales on I went for the Davy's Wallop at £3.60 or £3.80, and it was very nice. I expect the Scotch egg at £5.95 would be very very nice!
The clientele were mainly gentlemen of certain on some kind of renuion or regular meet up downing the Wallop, and a load of young legal eagle go-getters, quaffing stuff in tall glasses from ice buckets.

I don't know why they don't give it a proper name though, or do they want to keep it sounding like a wine bar? Probably. But don't fear, it's not too bad.

Needs a polish.

Pub 257. Bar Polksi, 1st April 2014.

What makes a Polish Bar Polish? By calling it a Polish sounding name. Not a lot else seems very Polish in here, unless your average Pole likes drinking in a bland concrete box with metal furniture.
Mind you one of the three draft beers was Polish. But I'm sure the fridges and optics were bristling with Polish intoxicating goodies. And the menu did look very Polish to be fair.
At £4.60 for a pint of Meantime Pale Ale (I'm sure that was right - but it sounds unlikely now... or does it!?) I'm not sure how many jobbing builders would come here often, and that would probably account for why everyone that was in were young English professionals.