The Sebright Arms, Barnet

This is still a McMullen's pub, so only their ales were on. The three on were Country, AK, and IPA. I went for the Country, but this turned out to be well below par, but was gracefully replaced with AK. This is still a two room pub. The room on the left has a dartboard, and a mix of tall tables/tall stools and normal tables and chairs. It was in this room that we sat, along with a handful of obvious regulars. The right hand room is clearly intended to be a bit more upmarket, with just fairly good quality tables and chairs, an apparently modern brick built fireplace at the back, and prints on the walls featuring some greats of the music industry such as Elvis, Queen, and Sinatra. But overall this is still a backstreet locals' pub. It falls firmly in the OK category. I guess I was just unlucky with the Country, although the barman said that they sold less than the IPA and AK, the latter being in excellent condition.

This is a two room community local with the rooms split by the bar. Wooden floors each side, mixed seating styles, a section of ceiling has false beams, painted white. There is a tiled fireplace with logs in an adjacent basket, certainly not needed yesterday, green lower walls, light coloured upper, giving a bright airy feel. Décor included a few whisky mirrors, quotations and slogans stencilled on the walls, framed drawings of the pub and a front page from The Barnet Gazette. A noticeboard lists forthcoming events. A McMullen's pub, they had on AK, County and Flower Power, I presume a seasonal, not seen this before. I believe food is served although I didn't see any signs apart from unusually containers of seemingly home made cakes and sausage rolls on the bar. There were a few in watching the pre-football build up on the TV with most of the locals congregating in one room. There is nothing here to set the pulse rating, it is just a steady back street local of a type becoming rarer, nice to see it still thriving, long may it do so.

Sebright Arms pages at the McMullens site - www.mcmullens.co.uk

Sebright Arms pages at the McMullens site - www.mcmullens.co.uk

Hidden away in a residential back street, only a short walk away from The White Lion, is The Sebright Arms, a two bar McMullens street corner local. The public bar is basic and features a table football machine and dartboard. Above a fireplace is some Barnet F C memorabilia, including a large photo of a grinning Barry Fry, a former manager of the club. A silent television was showing the Chelsea v Everton F A Cup replay. I’m afraid that this bar feels rather cold and clinical – light pine coloured wooden flooring and turquoise coloured wood panelling does seem desperately out of place in what looks on the face of it to be a typical back street pub. The saloon bar also has bare floor boards. Part of this bar acts as what management refer to as a “bistro” – consisting of a few tables with chequered table cloths. This bistro is open between Tuesday and Sunday, but there were no takers on my recent Saturday lunchtime visit. In this bar, a framed magazine article tells us that a sebright is a breed of chicken. Beers on were AK, Cask and Country. The AK was reasonable. The pub has been a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular in recent years, but is not in the current 2011 edition, presumably because of a change in pub management. The pub was virtually deserted on my visit. I didn’t warm to this pub at all and it’s not down for a revisit. Very disappointing

Randomness Guide to London - Sebright Arms entry

Randomness Guide to London - Sebright Arms entry