The Salisbury Hotel, Harringay, N4

This is a pretty amazing Victorian survivor of the sort that crops up here and there around this part of London. It’s a highly ornate, multiple roomed pub with a great interior that merits extended exploration. You enter through a fine left-hand side porch with a mosaic tile floor, etched glass door panes and intricate stained glass upper panels, plus a detailed metal filigree pub name sign above the entrance, eventually emerging into the spacious bar area. Here you’ll find smart parquet flooring, red wallpapered walls with a plain upper strip, an unusual, padded bench to left with individual seats, a button backed sofa and lots of standard chairs elsewhere. The bar is to the right and has a dark wood counter and grand matching bar back with detailed columns, etched glasswork and some huge stuffed birds on the top. A lit fireplace to the rear left has an attractive mirror above, large ugly blackboards cover a side wall and list the full drinks selection, whilst large pillars run through the middle with decorative capitals, lintels, and smart roses around lights. There’s also a big collection of plants in the front windows which makes it feel a bit like drinking in a greenhouse if you’re sat too close by. Moving through to the rear bar, you find an amazing mosaic tile floor, walls painted in a deep shade of red with another lit fireplace, more individual seat benches plus a collection of small round mirrors and two snugs to the rear - one with a very low entrance. A door to the rear left was signed for a ‘Lounge’ but I didn’t explore. The room is split in two by drawn curtains for no apparent reason and the bar here has more blackboards above and some beautiful wooden pillars along the counter. Back to the entrance, a door to the right leads into another bar, which has a slightly more relaxed feel, with a chequer tiled floor, huge arched windows along two sides, an etched glass former entrance porch, more potted plants in the windows and a defunct section of servery also lined with much greenery. Button backed banquettes extend around the perimeter, with standard tables and chairs elsewhere and two low slung sofas at the far end. Some of the disused porches have high tables and stools in them which gives you the feeling of almost being able to drink outdoors. Music was playing but it was hard to hear anything above the noise from a large Thursday night crowd. The pub always offers a selection of cask ale and the options on this visit were Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay and Late Red plus Black Sheep Bitter. Three real ciders occupied the remaining handpulls and my pint of Whitstable Bay was in good shape, poured by one of the efficient bar team. The pub was packed on arrival, and it took most of my visit before I was able to bag myself a seat. There’s a lot to admire in this pub, and despite having the chance to wander around the place quite extensively whilst waiting for a table to come free, I still feel like there’s plenty more to discover. The ale range was perhaps a bit pedestrian – Shepherd Neame brews aren’t likely to see a mad rush for the bar – but the beer seemed well-kept and worthy of recent inclusions in the Good Beer Guide. I really liked this place and thought it was well worth seeking out – a must do for anyone interested in traditional pub interiors. Date of visit - 10th October 2024

It is hard to describe this venue as anything other than an absolutely magnificent venue. Everything about it is lovely. True it is a bit of a trek from transport hubs but as with all pilgrimages you have to do the hard yards to get your reward. It is what Tim Martin experienced as wet dreams in his youth when he fantasised about the perfect pub. Forget Orwell’s Moon Under Water the perfect pub has a name and it is the Salisbury N4. It is the combination of a magnificent premises, the mosaic floors, the beautiful tiling, the exotic, indeed seductive and erotic flow of the bar around the venue. Add to that the vibrancy of the entire age spectrum enjoying the perfectness of the pub. The young, my age and the elderly were all revelling in this venue during my meagre hour plus stay on a crawl when I am generally arriving and thinking about the next tick. This is the tick for all ticks, come here and abandon your planned crawl, start, mid or towards the end and accept you have found pub perfection. True, you get reminders in the lavs saying protect your stuff because there are high bag thefts in the area, but look beyond the practical but mere mechanistic. No point listing beers as if some regular reminder. Took a photo of the current chalk board before tucking into three or four of the perfectly kept cask ales. You arrive here with plans of the next venue and even if they are some of the great alternatives in N4, save them for another time when undoubtedly you will also revisit here. As when Jack Nicklaus was reminded in 1973 he had been seeking perfection all his life after when witnessing the Belmont Stakes he saw it with Secretariat’s 31 length victory, this is pub perfection. I thought I had found the best with the Robin in N4 but now I have found another, unrivalled, location also in N4, the UK’s best pub postcode in my view!