The George, Kingsbury, NW9

Built in the 1930s for Cannon, this roadhouse pub is one of the grandest examples of brewers’ Tudor I’ve ever seen; it looks like the kind of suburban North London mansion that a participant in the Brink’s-Mat or Hatton Garden bullion robberies would inhabit. As per Google, there are ugly meal deal and drinks’ flyers affixed to the periphery’s ironmongery. Inside, it’s lost much of its once undoubted grandeur, but it’s still a fairly smart pub. The bar back is modern ‘olden-style’, the front modern. The floor is flagstone in the baronial tradition, walls a mix of trendy elements, seating being lounge-style, large tables or leatherette booth-style arrangements. Items of note are the lavatory entrances: the gents a mock-up of a K9 phone booth, the ladies a TARDIS (I suppose they need more space for the cubicles). There’s a multitude of Irish tricolour flags and rude signs above a seating area with statements such as ‘BULLS*IT CORNER’. Customers were few at the time of my Friday visit approaching 10.00pm, including some Asians, perhaps enjoying a swift one after visiting the mandir up the road. There were two unused pumps, then fizz, a half of Stella £2.75, served by a friendly old-school Irish landlady. Given the immense trek to get here for cooking lager, it’s not worth the effort, but pickings here are thin and this place is a joy to behold compared to the Green Man.

Facebook page of The George - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The George - www.facebook.com

Official site of The George - www.thegeorgekingsbury.com

Official site of The George - www.thegeorgekingsbury.com

I walked into the George at about 22:30 on St George’s Day night and was confronted by six or seven slaughtered locals ‘doing the hotstuff’ around the bar which I was dragged into. After some impromptu grooving I gained access to the bar where I was served a decent pint of Guinness by a polite barman. I did spot two hand pumps in amongst the sea of standard draught taps and these were drawing Greene King IPA and Spitfire. There are screens throughout for showing the heavily advertised Sky Sports and there is a dartboard and pool table to the right of the entrance. There are some picnics out the front along with some parking and there is a larger garden to the rear that I did not visit as the disco was blocking the rear exit. To be honest it was nice to find a non Irish bar in the crawl I had through Brent, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to return here.