Howl at the Moon, Hoxton, N1

Official site of Howl at the Moon - www.hoxtonpub.com

Official site of Howl at the Moon - www.hoxtonpub.com

Loved this little street corner pub.Warm cramped but comfortable interior.Friendly bar staff and only keg beer with no prices on display.Great for football and very busy on my two visits.Great choice of beers from Kernal,Cellar Boys,Verdant Bianca Road etc at craft beer prices.No cask pumps now.Toilets need an upgrade.

Back in the mid-17th century this was the Maidenhead, later known as the Queen’s Head, acquiring its lycanthropic name around 2010. Situated in a rather unprepossessing area, one that’s a graveyard for lost pubs; this is Hoxton Street’s sole survivor. A first in here the other night and it’s obvious that the hessian sacks and magenta walls have gone but I’d hardly say that this is now a homely pub, resembling something more of an American-influenced live music dive bar. There’s a big projector showing football with the sound off and another smaller TV to the rear showing similar. Furniture is a mixture of fairly conventional tables and chairs augmented with some traditional pews and modern bench/pews fashioned from planks. The plank theme is further used to decorate parts of the walls; the ceiling is painted black and hanging from it is one of those square section tubular steel gantries that sadly are now all the rage. Unsurprisingly given the décor, this is a live music pub with the kind of scuzzy lavs that you’d associate with such a venue – the young customers are exactly the kind of person you’d expect too. Friendly barmaids were serving up just Darkstar’s Table Beer and Pale Ale at a reasonable £2.20 a half and good but for the second time in the evening, served in a wineglass. This isn’t my thing, so I’ll not darken its doorway for a second time.

Interesting pub inside, a little different and quirky. If you're sitting outside its plastic glasses, but otherwise its a nice pub. 2 real ales, from Dark Star, kept ok

Located on Hoxton market the pub retains it's tiled exterior. Interior wise it's all reclaimed furniture with the ceiling covered in coffee sacks. 4 real ales and "craft keg" served.

I liked this pub as soon as I walked in,although a little quiet on a Saturday lunchtime there was a good vibe about the place.The floor is bare boarded with quite a mixture of seating ranging from wooden pews to stools and a good few Queen Anne style chairs, something you don't see to often in a pub,the quirkiness continues above as the whole ceiling is covered with hessian sacks once used for transporting coffee beans. Six hand pumps on the bar, two dedicated to Cider and Perry, in the form of Lilleys Crazy Goat and presumably a Perry called Pear Shaped,beers were New River Five Inch Drop and Riverbed Red along with Hackney HB, The Five Inch Drop was a little tiered but OK, served in a jug. I will definitely be back to this one.

This is a typical Victorian corner site pub, it goes without saying not with the original name. Nowadays a single boarded room, large clear glass windows, mostly regular tables and chairs with daffodils in bottles but with a couple of long pew like benches and a leather effect banquette under the front windows. The bar occupies part of the side wall, menus and the beer range listed above on chalkboards. Amongst the bottles and glasses I noticed a scaled down rugby ball and a small model of a wolf presumably howling on the shelves behind the bar. Six handpumps, Magic Rock Dark Arts and also High Wire (£4), Salopian Darwin's Original, Raw Brewery Co Zenith, Hackney Brewery Best Bitter plus Gwynt y Ddraig Black Dragon cider. Amongst the keg offerings were a couple from Camden, Brodies, Flying Dog, Meantime and Arbor Ales. Food served, not gastro stuff for sure, hot popcorn £2.50, pint of chips (?)£3.50, Howl burger £8.50, steak sandwich with mushrooms £7.50. Décor is of the random kind you find in these trendied up places, a large blown up picture of the album cover to Floyds "Dark Side of the Moon", there are planted boxes on the window cills, book ended by old 1960s style workmen's road lamps. Exposed metal ductwork at ceiling level. I enjoyed my half hour in here, the music playing was an eclectic mix of bluesy rock, jazz and reggae, my pint was in fine fettle and the pub was busy but not too much with a good vibrant atmosphere. The Hoxton market was on outside so probably contributed to the buzz inside on a mid Saturday afternoon. Not too sure about the name but a good pub nevertheless.

There were five ales on here, including something from the Marble Brewery and Hackney Brewery Bitter (brewed a stone’s throw away), the latter at a reasonable £3.30 a pint for such a good beer. There was also a draught cider available. The commitment to real ale is demonstrated by the array of pump clips – presumably of ales previously available – on one of the walls. It doesn’t look as if food is a major player here, but I did see a blackboard advertising some pub grub such as bangers & mash for £7 or fish & chips for £8. This place has an air of pubbiness despite having magenta painted walls and being fairly basically furnished with those uncomfortable re-cycled school chairs, although there were some upholstered banquettes. Entertainment was provided by a puppy attempting to gnaw its way through some sort of doggy treat that it chased around the pub in an attempt to get to grips with it. There’s not a great deal to say about this pub that has not already been said – it felt like a real pub and had some decent ale on. That’ll do for me.