The Old Farmhouse, Kentish Town, NW5

Visited 18/11/24 Cask comprised of a single hand pump of the Sharp's Atlantic Pale Ale (hence making it the first occasion ever I believe where I had a pint of the keg version in one venue then had a pint of the cask version in the next venue). Keg options were a mix of bland and decent and comprised Blue Moon, Pravda, Aspall cider, Guinness, Asahi, Staro and then Huck & Back NEIPA from Salt and two from Harbour, namely Daymer Bay Pale Ale and the Arctic Sky. Not tried the former previously so twisted my own arm to stay for a half of that rather than go back into the piss poor evening quite yet! This only re-opened last Friday apparently so top marks to Tris for already having photographed and reviewed and prompting me to trek here as a new venue. It was previously the Lady Hamilton visited a good while ago. Very different and much pared back. Now a bare boarded venue with bar servery on left hand wall with some stools at the bar, and the open kitchen next to that on that wall. Regular tables and chairs dotted around the rest of the floor area and some net curtains one third window height to create a south sea island French bistro sort of vibe. Lighting was subdued and non-descript music soundtrack suitably low key.

This pub dates from the mid-19th century, to be rebuilt in 1885; the original name – The Old Farm House – can still be seen to the parapet, presumably from Ye Olden Times when a farm house was two words, not one. This has gone by several names in recent years, documented below, but it was originally a Hoare’s house (later Charrington), with the name ‘Toby Ale’ above a window; this was probably the last remaining example of the name under Hoare’s, but sadly this has now gone. Compared to the last incarnation, the interior is utterly unrecognisable and a bit bizarre: the bar top is half a tree, with bare brick and scaffold bar back; next to it is an open kitchen, the raised countertop straddled by the other half of the tree. The floor is modern pale boarded, the walls clad with roughly applied pink gypsum plaster; the ceiling has bare wood rafters with chipboard infill. Furniture looks a bit south-east Asian, simple tables sporting flickering LED candles. There’s no décor other than lots of potted ferns; I half expected David Bellamy to leap out at me from a nook; in all, I guess that the concept here is that this is some sort of Tiki bar, but I felt like I was drinking in a branch of Travis Perkins. Marginalised to the left-hand side of the bar – sorry, tree – a solitary cask manifestation took the form of Sharp’s Atlantic, £3.10 a half, not bad by Sharp’s standards, served by a deferential barman. Compared side by side, this place is far better than the mildly menacing former O’Reilly’s but isn’t as good as the former Lady Hamilton; the Southampton Arms is a short walk.

Just a short way down the road from Kentish Town station, this is a fairly cosy, single room pub that was doing a decent trade on a mid-week evening. It’s a pretty simple pub with a single bare boarded room, benefitting from rugs thrown down here and there to dampen down the inevitable noise. Large windows along two sides allow lots of natural light in during daylight hours, although the muted lighting on my visit helped create a pleasant ambiance. The remaining walls have either been painted in dark colours or covered with floral wallpaper and the servery runs along the left-hand wall, with a simple wood panelled counter and mirrored bar back, turning into some sort of food servery towards the rear, despite no obvious evidence that the pub does any sort of food. A couple of TV’s were mounted at either end of the room, but both remained off, in favour of a loud and eclectic indie soundtrack. The walls have been decorated with a lot of fashion portraits, covers of Vogue magazine and other such bits of couture. The ceiling is also worth checking out thanks to a nice criss-cross moulding in a floral design with numerous roses in between. There are two handpulls on the bar, but neither were clipped on a Tuesday night, so I opted for a Siren IPA on keg, which was available alongside brews from the likes of Two Tribes and Beavertown as well as plenty of mainstream stuff. The bar staff were friendly enough, if a little passive and there was a nice post-work buzz despite the freezing temperatures outside. I thought this was a pretty decent pub with quite a likeable, cosy interior, decent seating and some attractive features. The lack of cask ale was a bit of a letdown and the service wasn’t the sharpest, but I quite enjoyed my time here and would pop my head in again to see if they had anything more interesting on the bar.