129. London Overground, Saturday 18th June 2011

The annual pub crawl was upon us and in customary fashion, I joined up with Richard Bradshaw and the boys late. They had started all the way up north in Watford, and had visited some quite awful places, some with a quite tasty atmosphere before I caught up with them at the Lancer or whatever it was called at Kenton. I got there when they were finishing drinks so could not rate it, but it did not look as though I had missed much, so saved myself for later. Something that I do regret however was missing the opportunity to spectate on Asian speed dating which was occupying most of the pub. Back onto the Bakerloo line and south one stop to the Windermere at South Kenton. I really liked this pub, even though it was a classic estate pub. It was very old fashioned, and had some reasonable beers on in the shape of 6X, Young's Special and Courage. There were also adequate dry snack opportunities, a pool table and hidden doors to the toilets.
The bar at the Windermere, South Kenton Andy W in front of the secret door to the ladies' at the Windermere, South Kenton
Mark Giles playing pool at the Windermere, South Kenton Consuming drinks at the Windermere, South Kenton

Back onto the train again and the short ride one stop to North Wembley, followed by a short walk to the Norfolk Arms. There were not many people at this pub and the man behind the bar was still wearing a coat. The lack of punters may be because they had no proper beer, however I felt like Guinness and the one that I was supplied with slipped down very nicely. Some more pool was played upon the two tables on offer although I declined, instead choosing to marvel at the classic toilet. Other than this a fairly standard estate pub which would probably fill up with pissed locals for the karaoke later in the evening.

Such was my lateness that it was already time to stop for some solids at JJ Moons at Wembley. This was a cavernous toilet of a pub with old soaks lapping up cheap alcopops, and many of us had ridiculously cheap farty food which took a little while to appear, and in hindsight it would have been more sensible to have had sandwiches on the hoof or something. Redeemingly, they did have some very good beer on and I managed to get a small selection done of the offerings which were Highgate Hanky Panky, Banks and Taylor mild, Abbot, Ruddles and Snecklifter. The beer situation then deteriorated again by the time we reached the Innisfree at Stonebridge Park, i.e. there was no beer. The toilets were also quite vile and the whole place had the appearance of being constructed out of chipboard. For some reason we prolonged our stay by playing a game of Killer with some very bad darts that fell apart.

Order was restored at the Grand Junction Arms, a short walk from Harlesden station, past a builders' yard which contained a Routemaster bus. This was quite a lively yet traditional Young's pub and had a reasonable beer selection, Waggledance, Young's Best, London Gold, although the taste was not up to much. Nevertheless it was the best pub that I had seen so far and I could have been persuaded to stay. Adam had to go back home, so we left and walked to the station. As it turned out, not a bad thing to do as time was getting on.
View from a bridge, not sure which station

If you want to go to a pub with a few old Irish men who think that they can kick you off the pool table whenever they want to, then the Sportsman at Willesden Junction is for you. It also has no beer, although the Guinness wasn't bad as expected. It also has a rather odd gents' with a tapered floor plan and the pub has a very spartan interior although this does mean that the poster depicting what I think is the Italia 90 Republic of Ireland World Cup squad has pride of place.
The 1990 Republic of Ireland World Cup team, Sportsman, Willesden Junction

Fortunately, normal service was resumed as we got nearer to the centre of London and hit what might be a trendy area at Kensal Green. Here we found unquestionably the best pub of the evening, the Mason's Arms, which was extremely busy and had some fine beer available in the shape of Sharps Cornish coaster and Camden Lager. It was a typical trendy north London pub - a grand building, packed with people, painted in a dark grey, with chalk boards and quirky furnishings and chandeliers, unlike a South London boozer which would have had a more cavernous interior, be emptier and have more traditional yet shabby fixtures and fittings. Kilburn High Road was the scene of our last stop together and it was the slightly disappointing Betsy Smith. True, it was filled with the beautiful people, but it was more like a wine bar, and I had to make do with bottled beer as we sat on some quite nice low chairs and mulled over our day. Alright I suppose, but not what I was looking for there and then.

Fortunately however, there was time to try to redress the balance and after I had said goodbye to everyone, the bus along Edgware Road made good time and I was able to pay a visit to the Brazen Head at Marylebone, one of a number of small pubs in the area, this being the first that I saw. I feel as though I had made an error though, because there was nothing special about the interior and no real beer at all, although some compensation was that they had VH1 on the TV, and I was privileged enough to watch Dexy's Midnight Runners and the Emerald Express perform 'Come on Eileen' and Bucks Fizz perform 'Land of Make Believe'. It was with a heavy heart that I realised that I had run out of time and could not visit the much more pleasing looking pubs nearer the station.


Home
Back

Dan Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com

Last updated 21st March 2012.