The Parakeet, Kentish Town, NW5

Quite a dark interior serving 2 real ales.

Official site of The Parakeet - theparakeetpub.com

Official site of The Parakeet - theparakeetpub.com

I came here once around 1988 when it was called the Vulture's Perch and didn't return for about 14 years, at which time the lavatories were some of the worst I'd ever seen. A return in October 2016 to a Greene King outlet, revealed a thoroughly made-over primped venture with utterly rancid ale and pumping music. Rebuilt in 1863, recently refurbished yet again and reopened in the last few days under the stewardship of the West Berkshire Brewery and some degree of sanity has been reinstated, the pub now being more muted. The wood-panelled dining room remains, but the main bar has been toned down a bit – gone is the overly embellished modern bar back, replaced instead by one of a simpler wooden design. The bar is wood topped with a dark field panelled front. Bare filament bulbs hang above from long flexes. The floor is bare and of slightly rough boards. The clichéd indigo colour scheme has been eschewed in favour of refreshingly simple white, applied by way of camouflage to the air handling’s limited ductwork. There is though a little bare brick. There’s also a beer shelf with stools to part of the picture windows along Islip Street. Furniture is conventional with some Britannia tables and normal stools. They are though positioned quite far apart, meaning that there’s a lot of vacant floor space, so even though there were few punters in, there was nowhere to sit, which for me is a bit of a deterrent – if I’d come here with friends for an evening, we’d have gone elsewhere to find a table. However, seating or not, we’d have gone elsewhere because of the thumpingly loud music, rendering conversation all but impossible – some things don’t change then. Ales: Mister Swift’s Pale Ale (off, but oddly without a reversed clip), Mister Chubb’s Lunchtime Bitter and Good Old Boy Best at £4.60 a pint, best described as a boring brown beer. Overall the Oxford Tavern is a big improvement over the Oxford, the end result is something which is thankfully more pubby, but the mundane ale, limited seating and especially the loud music must result in a below average score.

The Oxford is a corner pub that is very handy for Kentish Town Tube and rail stations,i needed the tube so this was a good pub to end my pub crawl in. Once inside there is a long oblong shaped room which runs to the rear,the room is bare boarded and the bar is on the left side,the seating is bench seating and chairs,the rear area was set for diners,where there were normal tables and chairs,there was an open kitchen on the mid left side. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Trumans Bow Bells,which went down very well as my last drink on my pub crawl,there was also Southwark Full Sail and GK IPA on the bar. Decent background music was playing but not loud enough for me. I thought this was a decent pub that was very busy on my late Friday afternoon visit to end my pub crawl in. Pub visited 2/6/2017