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The Great Northern Railway Tavern, Hornsey, N8

67 High Street
N8
N8 7QB
Phone: 02081276632

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


Pub SignMan left this review about The Great Northern Railway Tavern

This is a large, ornate Fullers pub located on a fairly busy road, about a five minute walk from Hornsey station. The pub looks pretty impressive on approach, thanks to a well looked after façade, and some of this grandeur has been retained inside as well. Entering through the corner door, this wasn’t initially all that apparent, as you find yourself in an open plan room with modern floor tiles, some basic tables and chairs around the perimeter and a banquette to the rear, but nothing too interesting to get excited about. This room felt like a bit of an overspill area and was definitely the last part of the pub to fill up on our Thursday evening visit. On closer inspection there are a lot of large plain windows around two sides of this room, but a couple of old etched glass panes have been retained, including in the old Jug and Bottle doorway, now disused. This door also has a very decorative frame and there’s a nice partitioning screen close to it with amazing etched glass, floral design panes. The servery extends into this space from the left-hand main bar area, with a long sweeping counter with curved ends passing through a small, snug-like space with enough room for a single table. The bar back has some attractive arched mirrors along the top and a decorative woodwork frieze below and lots of potted plants for colour. There’s limited seating opposite the bar, down the left-hand wall, but the pub opens out into a very nice room to the rear, which boasts plenty more tables and chairs in a nicely decorated space with a fireplace and pleasant skylight.
On the bar, three operational handpulls were dispensing Fullers London pride, Cloudwater Easy Pale and something from Siren. The Easy Pale was in reasonable condition, but cask seems to play second fiddle to the pub’s craft keg range, which appeared to be extensive, running across two long banks of taps. We visited for a beer tasting session with The Kernal brewery, which was hosted in the back room and included six beers from the brewery’s tap takeover. The event was hosted by someone from the brewery, but the real star was the barmaid, who brought all our beers out on time and also plied us with an excellent selection of cheeses which we all munched through with scant regard for how well they paired with the beer!
Fullers have got a few pubs around the capital that seem to have this heavy focus on craft beer and a limited selection of their own products, and on the whole, I quite enjoy these venues. This place was no exception, with excellent service, some fine traditional features, a few decent ale options and an extensive craft keg range marking it out as somewhere worth investigating.

Date of visit – 9th November 2023

On 8th January 2024 - rating: 7
[User has posted 3102 recommendations about 3102 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Tris C left this review about The Great Northern Railway Tavern

Dating from 1897, this is something of a minor gin palace, still displaying its gold gun carriage above the hanging sign, an indication that this was once a Taylor Walker house, recently taken over by Fuller’s.
The pub is well described below and on CAMRA’s heritage site as this is listed as being of Regional Importance; it’s also nationally Grade II-listed, so I suspect all the internal fittings about which some reviewers express doubts, are original.
As mentioned, there are still tap takeovers with four pumps to the left, one unclipped with the minority being from Fuller’s: Pride, DEYA’s Best Foot Forward and Wylam Brewing’s Fleek at an excruciating £6.15 and not really something I’d have ordered again, irrespective of price.
This is a fine heritage pub and makes for a great triple quadruple with the Queen’s and Railway Tavern.

On 15th September 2021 - rating: 7
[User has posted 1956 recommendations about 1923 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Steve of N21 left this review about The Great Northern Railway Tavern

Good to see this Grade II Victorian pub going from strength to strength under Fuller’s ownership since its reopening in March 2017 as one of Fullers craft beer focussed pubs. There are four hand pumps on the left hand side of the bar as you enter but the main focus is on the 24 different Keg offerings from the three banks of 8 keg taps spread around the horseshoe bar.
At least 16 of these usually have interesting modern craft offerings on and for my latest visit alongside some of the usual Fullers craft beers ( Frontier Lager, Session IPA e.t.c.) there were interesting options from Verdant Brewing , Big Smoke Brew Co., Siren, Northern Monk, Pressure Drop, Stillwater, Finback and DEYA Breweries indicated on the display screen at the end of the bar.
Three of the hand pumps were in use with London Pride and Dark Star Hop Head on alongside Hazy Pale Ale from Siren, but I joined the millennials and went for 2/3rds of one of the craft stouts and took it through to the pleasant former billiard room with its dominating fireplace as well described in the previous review. A flyer on the table I sat at then indicated that I had just missed a tap take over from Northern Monk the week before when 15 of the craft taps had their beers on.
This is a fine historic pub that has been given a good internal makeover in keeping with the history of the building by Fullers and is carving out a good local reputation for providing a constantly changing interesting list of Craft beers. It was being very well utilised on the early Friday evening of my last visit and although the CAMRA purists may not be so enthused by the available ale range this didn’t seem to be an issue for the millennial audience this pub now attracts, and i certainly had no issue finding a new brew to try for my personal Tryanuary mission.

On 20th January 2020 - rating: 7
[User has posted 2094 recommendations about 1985 pubs]


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Bucking Fastard left this review about The Great Northern Railway Tavern

A fine looking building with a Fullers pubsign and lots of interest,although various external doors to the Jug Bar,Public Bar,and at the street corner no longer function.However there is lots of etched glass to admire,with large picture windows.Internally it's L shaped with glass inlaid deviders and a raised dining area to the front,and generous banquettes down one side.Through a doorway is an impressive room with a stain glass roof light,and a large ornate fireplace.The snooker scoring frame gives away the original use,these days there is an odd mixture of seating options.Out the back is a large beer garden.
Food looks a notch up from pub grub with mains £10-14 with lighter bite options ,and the muzak was in keeping with a hipsterish vibe.
There are 4 handpumps drawing on my visit London Pride ,Crate Rye with Magic Rock Hattrick and Inhaler (drinkable,cloudy ,ludicrous short measure and ludicrous £5.10 price).However the main emphasis here is from the 16 craft keg taps delivering all manner of styles from many leading craft brewer such as Siren Craft,Howling Hops,Beavertown,Magic Rock and so on.
I was initially excited to see Magic Rock real ale,but that subsided once I had invested in a pint.My guess is that craft keg is the draw here and there were adverts for a Beer Festival of sour brews at the end of August.Good luck with that,it could be pricey !

On 19th August 2017 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2709 recommendations about 2709 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Great Northern Railway Tavern

Imposing former railway hotel, with an elaborate façade and some heritage features remaining (e.g. metalwork sign above main entrance). Less sure about the authenticity of the snob screens inside, though. Reverse 'J'-shaped bar, with notably large picture windows. Rear function room with a stage reached through a double door with a decorative copper-work motive above. Initially background jazz in bar, later replaced by live music helping to enhance the enjoyable Sunday afternoon atmosphere. Three of four handpumps in operation, with Brains IPA, Woodfordes Wherry and Butcombe Rare Breed (£3.50) available. Close to the station, as you would expect, so worth a stop if passing through.

On 8th February 2015 - rating: 7
[User has posted 8066 recommendations about 8066 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Will Larter left this review about The Great Northern Railway Tavern

Now reopened under new management, with live gigs, in the function room at the back, listed on their website. The pub retains something of the original layout, but the door at the corner of the building and the door labelled "jug & bottle" are both non-functional - red leather benches provide seating where these former entrances once were. The bar has four hand pumps on the section facing the main room. There were three beers on at the time of my visit, which was on a Monday evening an hour before a music session was due to begin. I had Purity Mad Goose, the others were St Austell Tribute and Adnams IPA.

There are snob screens and other remnants of a former design, but whether they are original features of this pub or rescued from elsewhere is hard to say. The bar back has had some mirrored panels replaced by blackboards. The most impressive feature is a sort of bronze relief above the door to the rear room.

It was strange that there were piles of dirty glasses stacked on the bar in the section where I sat - perhaps the washing machine had broken down, because it wasn't at all busy. It was quite pleasant here and I'm glad I came, but I would hesitate to recommend it as a destination pub, unless there's some music on that you're keen to catch.

On 12th April 2013 - rating: 6
[User has posted 3700 recommendations about 3439 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


an_ ecumenical_matter left this review about The Great Northern Railway Tavern

No rating. Looked as it may have re-opened further to the last review but was in total darkness with gates over doors at 1700 when passing by recently.

On 17th January 2012 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 39 recommendations about 38 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Alesonly . left this review about The Great Northern Railway Tavern

Pub closed at present for refurbishment outside was being painted as I passed by on Friday. There was no opening date displayed. It was a good old style Pub lets hope its done up in traditional style and has a few more decent Real Ales when it reopens. I will update this review once I visit on reopening.

On 27th February 2011 - rating: 7
[User has posted 132 recommendations about 105 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Kake Pugh left this review about The Great Northern Railway Tavern

They do have real ale now, but just the one - Greene King IPA.

On 24th August 2010 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 4 recommendations about 4 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Steve C left this review about The Great Northern Railway Tavern

This is a good looking pub with the bar area housing a pool table on a raised level and I counted four plasma screens that have the capability of showing Sky Sports. There is a larger room towards the rear of the pub which has a plasma screen on the wall behind a small stage area that I would imagine being used for live music nights. Past this room is a small conservatory that leads to a small sunken garden that is full of creepers and entertains a barbeque. There is also a Thai kitchen attached, but I did not try the food so I cannot comment.

There is no real ale and Staropramen is the only offering other than standard draught products. I thought that the barmaid was a little frosty, but the governor seemed polite enough.

I liked it in here and I would return again if in the area.

On 1st September 2009 - rating: 8
[User has posted 5179 recommendations about 5148 pubs]

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