No Such Place, N1

Official site of No Such Place - nosuchplace.bar

Official site of No Such Place - nosuchplace.bar

A homage to Hitchcock and the nearby (and former) Gainsborough Studios,this pub has several different sections and lots of ephemera to see.The three sided bar is straight ahead from the entrance with a flatscreen high above a side wall.To the left there is a mix of seating with several benches and a few cinema seats,while the other side has a baby grand piano as a feature before more bench seating .French windows give access to a paved beer terrace,while there is a mid building snug ,and an extensive front room running along the street side of the pub with some grandure.A sign outside indicates the pub is both gay and dog friendly. There are 5 handpumps ,of which 3 were drawing TT Landlord,London Pride and Hammerton N1 (cloudy and out of condition).Keg taps offer sparkling ciders ,Lagunitas IPA and Sierra Nevada among other more mainstream option,but I thought overall this was a poor range.Food is available and looked pub grub style and on a Saturday lunchtime before Six Nations Rugby it was not very busy.Too much of a theme pub,not enough ale quality to demand a revisit.

Renamed North by Northwest in 2016 as an Alfred Hitchcock-themed pub, the name being a homage to the former Gainsborough Studios just around the corner from here where some of Hitchcock's earliest pre-Hollywood films were made, including The Lady Vanishes. No surprises then than the place is festooned with Hitchcockery rather than genuine memorabilia, save for a huge number of film posters, original or not is not known. A number of real model aircraft hang from the ceiling - a nod to the eponymous pub - and there are stuffed crows perching all over the shop; The Birds. Behind the bar there is a life-size statue of the Portly One but I didn't spot a shower curtain anywhere or a mummified customer sitting in a rocking chair wearing a wig and dress. The pub is split level with modern bare boards and the rear of the pub is dominated by a grand piano. Furniture is basic with wax-encrusted bottles containing candles on each table which are a risk to hair as you sit down. There are also a lot of modern orange-shaded lights so the overall glow is subdued and very orange. Muted music played and a TV, thankfully off, was spotted; out back in the garden there's a ping pong table. The place seemed to appeal to rather dowdy locals and painfully few too, with around five people in attendance on a Friday at 9.00 pm. Ales: three unused pumps, thereafter just Hammerton's Life on Mars and N1 which was good and at £4.20 a pint, not bad for the area. This isn't a great pub - perhaps the locals knew something we didn't, and explained why it was so empty? There's not much in the area, but the Hanbury Arms, Baring Arms and Rosemary Branch are all around the corner from here and are a lot better.