The Devonshire Arms, Camden Town, NW1

The penultimate port of crawl before the Manics saw us end up here. OK, we didn't just end up here, we deliberately chose this place because – thanks to their reputation – we wanted to see just how awful the toilets were. Gentlemen (and Ladies, we checked) this place lives up to the hype. They are the worst pub toilets I've yet to experience; Michael Eavis would veto them if they appeared on Worthy Farm. On the pub side, the inside is loud, dark and scruffy. One bonus was the ale – the Hobgoblin was decently priced for the area and tasted fairly good given some of the appallingly bad beers I'd been subjected to earlier on in the day around Camden. Worth a stop for the comedy value – once. Or twice if you use the toilets as a forfeit for a bet, like we did.

This is a purposely grim pub for the Goths and their ilk of Camden to drink in the dark whilst listening to brain damage music played at ear splitting volumes. The barmaid was very friendly and my pint of Stella was on good form, but I’ve never had the inclination to dye my hair jet black with purple streaks or tattoo some satanic slogan on my backside so I didn’t really fit in. Each to their own I suppose.

A.K.A. the Hobgoblin, the Devonshire is basically a rock / goth / indie pub along the lines of the Intrepid Fox but with a far more battered and grubby appearance. Battered furnishings, black walls and a thousand and one posters of Marilyn Mansun eyeballing you from every angle won't be everyone's cup of tea and the fake cobwebs and gothic fake flickering lighting is more London Dungeon than trendy Camden. You almost expect a rubber spider to crawl out of a crack in the floor. 3 hand pumps but all off on my visit – Hobgoblin seems to be the only ale that they do but I had to resort to Guinness which was a lucky choice as it was during happy hour (that seems to last 3 days) where selected “beers” are all £2.20. A raised corner doubles up as a stage for live bands and there is a DJ stall which presumably pumps out a diet of AC/DC at ear shattering volume when the need arises. Not sure how this place has missed my radar for so long but I do like a good grubby venue now and again and I need to return at some point as I sadly missed out on the toilet experience.