The Haverstock Tavern, NW3

Official site of The Haverstock Tavern - thehaverstocktavern.co.uk

Official site of The Haverstock Tavern - thehaverstocktavern.co.uk

Date of visit: 5th August 2018 The pub’s frontage has gone unchanged since its last incarnation and still features some attractive etched glass. There are lanterns to the top of the ground floor, but these are switched off at night which gives the impression that the pub’s closed when viewed from a distance. Internally, much has changed since the last ghastly incarnation: the daft booths have gone along with the cheap wood and ply chairs; the icky fake copper birch-effect wallpaper has been stripped away. Gone too are the ridiculous lanterns which resembled enormous copper doughnuts. The apparent on-site microbrewery has also disappeared. Instead, there’s now much fairly conventional furniture with a couple of long chunky tables with benches and a sole high circular marble-topped table with a couple of matching chairs. From the ceiling hang some sensible spherical white opaque lanterns. The colour scheme is utterly predictable, being part pale grey and part smoky blue. The bar front is probably original and is bow fronted and leading up to it is an attractive boarded floor. The modern bar back seems to have been retained from previous incarnations being modern mirrored with a tubular steel bottle shelf. A side door leads out to a tiered and decked garden and to the left-hand side of the pub is a small room which seems to be reserved for dining, despite food being consumed from anywhere within the pub. To the right-hand rear, there’s now an open kitchen dishing out pizza which pubs love because it’s filling, dirt cheap to make yet commands a very high mark-up for what is in effect a large circular piece of cheese on toast. Music played over the gramophone, but it was a tad too loud. On a more interesting note, from 1965 to 1974 this pub was called The Noble Art on account of it hosting the Belsize Boxing Gym, visited by none other than Muhammad Ali. Ales: none. Two staple-shaped chrome founts dispensing a smörgåsbord of premium lagers, Guinness and Lagunitas IPA at an utterly insulting £6.00 a pint. Despite the inexplicable name, this pub may be an improvement over its predecessor but it’s still not very pubby; a bit soulless. Despite the recent and divisive work inflicted, the Steele’s over the road is still the more pubby of the two, has real ale, a more adventurous menu and a pint is considerably cheaper. However, even if this were a fantastic pub, there’s absolutely no way that I’m going to get ripped off £6.00 a pint and in a part of NW3 that’s not that affluent, so a return visit is absolutely off the cards. Indeed, the gold Courage cockerel which once straddled the pub’s hanging sign has flown the roost – perhaps he was trying to tell us something. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.