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Howl at the Moon, Hoxton, N1

178 Hoxton Street
N1
N1 5LH

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


john gray left this review about Howl at the Moon

Loved this little street corner pub.Warm cramped but comfortable interior.Friendly bar staff and only keg beer with no prices on display.Great for football and very busy on my two visits.Great choice of beers from Kernal,Cellar Boys,Verdant Bianca Road etc at craft beer prices.No cask pumps now.Toilets need an upgrade.

On 2nd February 2019 - rating: 8
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]


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Tris C left this review about Howl at the Moon

Back in the mid-17th century this was the Maidenhead, later known as the Queen’s Head, acquiring its lycanthropic name around 2010. Situated in a rather unprepossessing area, one that’s a graveyard for lost pubs; this is Hoxton Street’s sole survivor. A first in here the other night and it’s obvious that the hessian sacks and magenta walls have gone but I’d hardly say that this is now a homely pub, resembling something more of an American-influenced live music dive bar. There’s a big projector showing football with the sound off and another smaller TV to the rear showing similar. Furniture is a mixture of fairly conventional tables and chairs augmented with some traditional pews and modern bench/pews fashioned from planks. The plank theme is further used to decorate parts of the walls; the ceiling is painted black and hanging from it is one of those square section tubular steel gantries that sadly are now all the rage. Unsurprisingly given the décor, this is a live music pub with the kind of scuzzy lavs that you’d associate with such a venue – the young customers are exactly the kind of person you’d expect too.
Friendly barmaids were serving up just Darkstar’s Table Beer and Pale Ale at a reasonable £2.20 a half and good but for the second time in the evening, served in a wineglass.
This isn’t my thing, so I’ll not darken its doorway for a second time.

On 8th February 2018 - rating: 4
[User has posted 1956 recommendations about 1923 pubs]


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Danny O'Revey left this review about Howl at the Moon

Interesting pub inside, a little different and quirky. If you're sitting outside its plastic glasses, but otherwise its a nice pub. 2 real ales, from Dark Star, kept ok

On 19th June 2017 - rating: 7
[User has posted 1456 recommendations about 1434 pubs]


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hondo . left this review about Howl at the Moon

Located on Hoxton market the pub retains it's tiled exterior. Interior wise it's all reclaimed furniture with the ceiling covered in coffee sacks. 4 real ales and "craft keg" served.

On 26th November 2016 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 2883 recommendations about 2820 pubs]


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Moby Duck left this review about Howl at the Moon

I liked this pub as soon as I walked in,although a little quiet on a Saturday lunchtime there was a good vibe about the place.The floor is bare boarded with quite a mixture of seating ranging from wooden pews to stools and a good few Queen Anne style chairs, something you don't see to often in a pub,the quirkiness continues above as the whole ceiling is covered with hessian sacks once used for transporting coffee beans. Six hand pumps on the bar, two dedicated to Cider and Perry, in the form of Lilleys Crazy Goat and presumably a Perry called Pear Shaped,beers were New River Five Inch Drop and Riverbed Red along with Hackney HB, The Five Inch Drop was a little tiered but OK, served in a jug. I will definitely be back to this one.

On 5th March 2016 - rating: 8
[User has posted 1868 recommendations about 1841 pubs]


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Bucking Fastard left this review about Howl at the Moon

ORIGINAL REVIEW August 2014
This street corner Victorian pub just has a large open plan interior with two huge communal tables surrounded by pews ,and a few other smaller tables,wooden chairs and stools.It's one of those pubs that gets busier as the Friday afterwork sessions extends into the evening;I had no trouble getting seated at 6pm ,but by 10pm the pub was rammed .It's the haunt of a lot of local hipsters with beards to match,but there were some more mature drinkers dotted about.The hand made burgers were also proving popular and seemed to be available until quite late.There is a lot of room on the pavement to one side,and this allowed a lot of overspill,so that actually getting served wasn't a problem apart from delays caused by card weilding customers,what's wrong with cash these days ?
The lavs are a bit unusual with no door on the gents urinals,a unisex WC and another reserved for ladies only.Well this is Hoxton,which also probably accounts for the eclectic muzak being dialled up to 11,requiring shouting to be employed in ordering ale and to converse with drinking buddies.That said,I did enjoy the lively ,bibulous atmosphere where everyone was having a good time.
The star of the show is the real ale and keg beer offerings.The six handpumps were drawing a real cider and rotating guest ales in the shape of Clouded Minds Dolce Vita(outstanding) and Hazelnutter(very moreish),London Fields Love not War(good session ale),Hop Studio Zest(a bit weird) and Stotfold Amber.The keg selection was very solid including two from Siren Craft (one the outstanding Liquid Mistress Red IPA),two from London Fields , Magic Rock Hire Wire and Brooklyn Lager among others.However keg pricing is pretty high the the Liquid Mistress coming in at £5.I would say that the keg beers were more popular than cask with the younger crowd but a lot of it was being consumed by the half,which also seemed to suit the many women who use the pub.
The GBG listing is fully deserved,and I will most certainly return.The pub does showcase well regarded microbrewers output and there is a distinct absence of national real ale brands,no bad thing.A good spot to sup some Locales and cast an eye over hipster chic,it is a proper pub where beer in all it's forms still comes first.

UPDATE
Some real slippage here,with a dimished and poorer real ale selection and even the keg offerings were largely unexciting.Two handpumps were dedicated to a real cider and perry,and although my Redemption Rock the Kazbek was decent,there was only one other real ale option until Dark Star Hophead came on later in the session.The only really exciting keg option seemed Magic Rock Dark Arts and the £10 burgers were poorly presented,greasy with soggy chips.Noticeably very few people were eating ,and customer turnover was quite high.It seems a lot of the hipsters have moved on,it is now just a standard young persons pub and sadly wont be on the list for a revisit.We sloped off for the 10 minute walk to The Wenlock in search of ale excellence.

On 26th September 2015 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2709 recommendations about 2709 pubs]


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Malden man left this review about Howl at the Moon

This is a typical Victorian corner site pub, it goes without saying not with the original name. Nowadays a single boarded room, large clear glass windows, mostly regular tables and chairs with daffodils in bottles but with a couple of long pew like benches and a leather effect banquette under the front windows. The bar occupies part of the side wall, menus and the beer range listed above on chalkboards. Amongst the bottles and glasses I noticed a scaled down rugby ball and a small model of a wolf presumably howling on the shelves behind the bar. Six handpumps, Magic Rock Dark Arts and also High Wire (£4), Salopian Darwin's Original, Raw Brewery Co Zenith, Hackney Brewery Best Bitter plus Gwynt y Ddraig Black Dragon cider. Amongst the keg offerings were a couple from Camden, Brodies, Flying Dog, Meantime and Arbor Ales. Food served, not gastro stuff for sure, hot popcorn £2.50, pint of chips (?)£3.50, Howl burger £8.50, steak sandwich with mushrooms £7.50.
Décor is of the random kind you find in these trendied up places, a large blown up picture of the album cover to Floyds "Dark Side of the Moon", there are planted boxes on the window cills, book ended by old 1960s style workmen's road lamps. Exposed metal ductwork at ceiling level.
I enjoyed my half hour in here, the music playing was an eclectic mix of bluesy rock, jazz and reggae, my pint was in fine fettle and the pub was busy but not too much with a good vibrant atmosphere. The Hoxton market was on outside so probably contributed to the buzz inside on a mid Saturday afternoon. Not too sure about the name but a good pub nevertheless.

On 6th April 2014 - rating: 7
[User has posted 1707 recommendations about 1681 pubs]


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Rex Rattus left this review about Howl at the Moon

There were five ales on here, including something from the Marble Brewery and Hackney Brewery Bitter (brewed a stone’s throw away), the latter at a reasonable £3.30 a pint for such a good beer. There was also a draught cider available. The commitment to real ale is demonstrated by the array of pump clips – presumably of ales previously available – on one of the walls. It doesn’t look as if food is a major player here, but I did see a blackboard advertising some pub grub such as bangers & mash for £7 or fish & chips for £8.

This place has an air of pubbiness despite having magenta painted walls and being fairly basically furnished with those uncomfortable re-cycled school chairs, although there were some upholstered banquettes. Entertainment was provided by a puppy attempting to gnaw its way through some sort of doggy treat that it chased around the pub in an attempt to get to grips with it. There’s not a great deal to say about this pub that has not already been said – it felt like a real pub and had some decent ale on. That’ll do for me.

On 23rd June 2013 - rating: 7
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]


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Pub SignMan left this review about Howl at the Moon

Howl at the Moon is a basic single room pub, just down the road from Hoxton market and a short walk from Hoxton Overground station. The interior is fairly unremarkable – bare floorboards, walls painted in neutral colours and a mix of banquette, pew and standard seating. The pews are lined up on either side of some very narrow tables that run along one side of the pub. There are big windows on the front and right hand walls which should allow plenty of light in, although I visited on a Saturday evening and made do with the muted ceiling lighting. A collection of books had been assembled on the windowsill including CAMRA literature and various beer books, whilst a few board games could be found on some shelves at the back of the room. There was a juke box on the rear wall and an excellent Motown soundtrack played throughout my stay at quite a loud volume. The toilets are, for some reason, without signage, so to save any embarrassment, prospective customers should bear in mind that the gents are on the left.
Six hand pumps were on view, but only three were in action, dispensing Hackney Best Bitter, London Fields Black IPA and a real cider. The Hackney Best Bitter was a very enjoyable pint and I was encouraged to see the pub promoting some of the relatively new local breweries from this part of town. There was a decent keg range including all the standard lagers plus a Brewdog keg font with Punk IPA and 5am Saint.
This pub was very quiet during my visit, so I’m not sure I caught it at the right time to fully appreciate it. I thought it had a bit of potential and although it’s not all that interesting, it had enough about it to make me consider a return.

On 23rd October 2012 - rating: 6
[User has posted 3102 recommendations about 3102 pubs]