The Horn, St Albans Central, St. Albans

Unashamedly and proudly a music pub, with music quotes, displays and posters adorning the walls, and a surprise in the gents toilets. Looks as if they have a lot of tribute acts playing. Three handpumps with Doom Bar, Pride and Black Sheep. Looks like it may have had a bit of a refurbishment recently.

The Horn is a live music pub handily located around the corner from St Albans Railway Station. There was a band setting up in the rear room of the pub when I visited early on Saturday evening and I noticed that there was a £5 admission charge to watch the band. I didn’t venture out of the front bar area which has seen better days, except to have a cigarette sitting at one of the picnic tables out the front on a fairly busy junction. A standard selection of draught products was available alongside Brakspear from hand pump. I scanned the bar and noticed that everyone was drinking lager so I decided to do the same. Unsurprisingly there is a license until 2am at the weekends and I noticed that a couple of upcoming gigs are sold out so they must be half decent. As a pub I didn’t think that there was much here to tempt me back and I’m afraid that the live music aspect doesn’t interest me that much either.

The Horn is a well known music pub having started in the 1970’s when it was called the Horn Of Plenty. It has hosted many big names in the rock, punk and indie world, some on their way to fame and fortune, others gasping for the last breaths of their careers, although these days it seems to cater more for cheap tribute acts than well known artists. Unfortunately I have never managed to see a gig here and can only judge it as a pub although that probably overl;ooks much of what the place is about. Like most music pubs, the furnishings are quite basic although it all appears quite new so it has presumably been refurbished at some stage quite recently. The décor largely revolves around posters, adverts, memorabilia, photos and a couple of guitars on the bar canopy. The beers are the general range of lagers, kegs etc although there is a single ale, Brakspear Bitter, which was pretty decent although I didn’t note the price. Other than a handful of away football fans from nearby Clarence Park (of which I was one) the pub was empty although the barmaid was quite chatty and I would guess that daytime is usually pretty quiet with the pub coming more into its own when the gigs are on. The pub is certainly an important part of the local music scene and should be commended for its longevity in this field although its self styled status as Hertfordshire’s Premier Music Venue might be stretching things a bit. As a pub it is handy for the station and the aforementioned football ground but I wouldn’t particularly use it for anything beyond a meeting point unless I was there for a gig.