The Beaconsfield, Harringay, N4

Oh dear is all I can say. Has the makings of a really decent pub but not really run as anything like it could be. Lovely dark wood island bar in the centre with seating consisting of a variety of styles, including some nice booth tables on the left hand side. Lots of lovely etched glass, pillars, mosaic tops to the main windows, dividing panels and nice globe lighting counterbalanced in an extreme way by overload music and intrusive, flashing fruit machines, crap beer choices (see below). Darts and pool out the back beyond the bar. Taps for Guinness, Heineken, K1664, Maltsmiths, Fosters, John Smiths, Moretti and Original Strongbow. Two hand pumps for GK IPA with the clips turned round. Both the JS and the Maltsmiths were unavailable so I settled for a bottle of Corona to enable me to sup up here quicker and bear a hasty retreat. I was hoping this would turn out better than the reviews below with maybe a post-Covid bounce back but I would have settled for a few of the positive aspects below. Probably a 2 if not such a lovely space and working sockets to charge my depleted phone battery. Really can’t envisage a return here.

The Beaconsfield makes it into CAMRA’s inventory of pubs with historic interiors, this recording a rank of Regional Importance and it’s for this reason that I suspect the previous reviewers journeyed here. It’s unchanged since at least the last review, with the cardboard glazing still in place and two clips dispensing GK IPA, eschewed in favour of a well poured Guinness, at the amazingly low price of £3.70; clearly the Indian barman has been practicing. Some of the people in here were a bit rum and to be honest, I didn’t feel entirely comfortable here and not just because of the large number of TVs showing the footie. The interior can be seen on CAMRA’s and on the pub’s own website, where the narrator in the video clip fails to pronounce the name correctly. At short walk from here and both situated on Green Lanes, the Brownswood and Salisbury both make it into CAMRA’s inventory for having the ‘Wow!’ factor, not ‘Why?’ factor.

There is a good pub here struggling to get out ,but in it's current guise there is a huge ,lost oppoutunity.There is a hotel upstairs but I would suspect this is quite downmarket and guests may well be the people spending all day in the pub.The side door leads to an island bar in the middle which you can walk around.Not much furniture at the front,two pool tables at the rear but lots of wood panelling,some etched glass and a fine moulded ceiling but painted a gloomy shade of green.Original features still exist but a pane of glass to the front has been broken but just taped up rather than replaced.The flatscreen were all showing hurling and there were some Irish punters inside but the bar staff are Indian and were getting grief from a regular for not pouring a decent pint of Guiness which was totally unfair.My half was fine at £1.95 but the handpumps didn't look like they have been operational for a while. It's a sad place,underused and could be so much better with some TLC.No reason to revisit in it's current state .

Official site of The Beaconsfield - beaconsfieldhotel.com

Official site of The Beaconsfield - www.londonpubsgroup.camra.org.uk

Official site of The Beaconsfield - beaconsfieldhotel.com

Official site of The Beaconsfield - www.londonpubsgroup.camra.org.uk