Lord High Admiral, NW8

A mid-Victorian pub this, rebuilt beneath local authority flats in the 1960s on the opposite side of the road. Until recently, this place displayed an increasingly rare gold Courage cockerel above the sign frame and an even rarer red Courage illuminated box sign, visible on Google but sadly now both gone. A first in here the other night and unsurprisingly, this is a far cry from the neighbouring Traders Inn, a very basic pub indeed so it’s no surprise that it has been taken under the wing of the reliably downmarket Craft Union chain. There’s a fairly large interior, looking like an airport departure lounge bar, carpeted with a laminate floor as bar apron, patterned wallpaper or white colour scheme, fairly conventional furniture, with booth-style banquettes to the right-hand side. To the rear there’s a games’ area, with games machines, pool and darts, well attended by a group of youths. To the walls there are seven TVs showing QI with the sound off, all unwatched; does the manager not realise just how expensive these are to run? Décor comes in the form of framed flyers for drinks’ deals. Customers were few in number, the youths to the rear, with a few older customers to the front, both groups seemingly harmless. For some reason there was a security guard on the prowl, periodically coming over and leaning on the banquette opposite me to peruse his phone, which wasn’t on. There were two pumps, each with a reversed Doom clip, a half of Guinness coming in at £2.20, served by a friendly barman; WKD cocktail pitchers are available for £9.95 if that’s your thing. I’ve been in worse places than this, but this is still a very poor showing; pool aside, I can’t for the life of me understand why the – older – drinkers don’t opt for the Traders up the road?

Official site of Lord High Admiral - lordhighadmiral-lisson.craftunionpubs.com

Official site of Lord High Admiral - lordhighadmiral-lisson.craftunionpubs.com

Quite a large interior with a central bar serving a standard draught selection.

This struck me as a typical 60s estate pub, which would probably have had a flat roof had there not been several floors built above it (affordable housing possibly). The clues are there as you approach; the chalkboard outside with some useful advice scrawled on it, such as "no bonnets" and "no drink your drunk". Inside is no improvement as there were no redeeming features that I could discern. There's a pool table at the back, and a dartboard in a gloomy alcove where a lady was rummaging through boxes seemingly containing clothing. The TV was showing the racing, and of course there were fruit and games machines about the place. There's no real ale obviously. PuG members might be advised to visit a pub such as this every now and again so that we can appreciate the barely adequate pubs that are our locals for the little gems that they really are by comparison.