The Thornhill Arms, Kings Cross, N1

As others have commented this Caledonian Road pub has a fine exterior with some excellent historical Charringtons tiled branding, but unfortunately the modern decor interior does not match the classic exterior. There will be those that like these clean modern pub interiors but I find them all a bit sterile. However the glass wall display of old historical beermats was interesting though. As well as some outside picnic tables there is the very pleasant enclosed beer yard out back that I did take a look at. However unfortunately for my visit the only beer that was available to take into it was coming out the shiney keg taps as both the ale pumps were unused and even unbadged, so this is probably another London pub that has stopped trying to keep real ale post Covid. There were quite a few in on this early mid week evening during from what I could see It looks like a well run community pub.

Official site of The Thornhill Arms - www.thethornhillarms.com

Official site of The Thornhill Arms - www.thethornhillarms.com

Much as described below, it's clear that the pub has had a trendy makeover to try to tempt in the newly arrived moneyed locals who live in the rather lovely Georgian houses that remain in an otherwise rather desolate, semi-industrial area. Some walls are now bare brick and huge industrial lamps hang over tables which are high or low and fairly traditional, the colour scheme in here is the ubiquitous blue or blue/grey from the Farrow & Ball school of pub paint palettes. Music was muted, but unfortunately there were two TVs to the walls showing football, albeit with the sound down. The landlady decided to go and actually stand behind here bar and served me with a reasonable half of Sambrook's Wandle at £2.00, which is about right for the area; this was the only ale on offer. This pub is just about OK, but the area's a bit dowdy and I'd prefer the short walk up the hill to The Crown.

The magnificent exterior of this pub has the most exuberant old Charrington signage that I've ever seen, that is clearly shown in the photographs. But inside it's nothing special. To be fair there is a bit of original, but fairly plain, tiling around the sides that has clearly been much abused over the years. But that's it - everything else looks very new, with modern distressed wooden screens not achieving any purpose that I could see. There was a lot of grey about, as is the case with many a thoroughly madeover pub, with some walls, the ceiling, and the bar counter front all painted this ubiquitous colour. Some tall plastic stools were around the bar; some tall tables/tall stools were there of course, plus some scrubbed tables with recycled church pews and recycled Sunday school chairs. A couple of pluses were the rack of newspapers on the counter, and the framed montage of ancient beermats in a corner on the left. I spotted a few old favourites such as for Hofmeister and Whitbread Tankard, but didn't spot one for Red Barrel. The central island bar had a couple of handpumps, but with only one apparently in use dispensing Sambrook's Wandle (£4 a pint). I didn't see a menu. I didn't eplore the advertised beeryard either, although I did see a few people making use of the picnic benches at the front of the pub. This one's fair enough if you like madeover pubs with little pub feel about them. I don't imagine that this is the sort of pub you are likely to visit if you are after a decent ale selection, but at least they did have one ale on.

I think that the previous commentators will be pleased to learn that the Thornhill Arms has undergone some change since their visits way back in 2007. The island bar and standard draught products remain with the addition of some premium lagers and three hand pumps. One of these was off leaving Sambrook’s Wandle and Robinson’s Trooper as the cask ale options. A lunchtime menu was in operation with pub grub mains all priced at £5, which is excellent value for the area. Around the exterior walls are tables with a mix of standard and pew seating. During my visit, just after mid-day on a recent Monday, there was some low background music playing and I spotted two plasma screens. These were both off, but I did see that Sky Sports was advertised. Adjacent to the footpath down the side of the pub are some picnic tables covered by awnings and I noted that a new beer yard was advertised. Due to the inclement weather I did not investigate on this occasion. I was the only customer due to the pub only just opening, but I liked the surroundings and the service was very friendly. I would have no problem visiting this pub again if passing.