The Red Lion & Sun, Highgate, N6

Date of visit - August 2013 On the main road out of Highgate going northwards, is The Red Lion and Sun, a food orientated Greene King pub. It’s set back from the main road with a slightly worn and scruffy seating area outside at the front where the rumble of traffic heading to/from the A1 a few miles away is a constant reminder that you’re still in London and not the countryside. Inside a single L shaped bar serves a pub that is perhaps larger in terms of space than it looks from the outside. It’s a featureless functional interior with pastel coloured wood panelled walls, the usual wooden scrubbed tables and chairs and, reflecting the food emphasis, condiments and rolled up paper menus on each table. Perhaps predictably, I was greeted by the usual hissing sound from a large coffee machine on the side of the bar. Pleasingly, there’s no music, TV or fruit machines. A free postcard on a shelf just inside the front door shows the pub in 1887 and shows branding of the London and Burton Brewery. Sadly the etched windows at the front advertising “Brandies” have, predictably, now been replaced by plain glass. At the back of the pub is a small, but quiet, patio from where you are spared the sounds of the traffic. The pub has been in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide for the last few years ( as at August 2013 ) and, perhaps unusually for a place like this, the recent GBG stickers are prominently displayed, as was also the latest issue of London Drinker. It was therefore something of a disappointment to find only two beers on – IPA Gold and Speckled Hen ( or was it Golden Hen ?) . I didn’t see anything to indicate any non GK beers are ever served. Notably, the new edition of CAMRA’s London Pub Walks, which takes you past the pub’s front door, fails to even give the pub a mention. Based on my visit, there’s no pubby feel at all and, despite the GBG listing, a return visit is not envisaged.

This is a Greene King house, so the typical range was on offer. I had the Morland’s Original, at £3.10 a pint, which was OK but had the distinctive GK taste. The pub is set back from the road by 20 yards or so, allowing space for some tables in front of the pub. Inside it has a typical layout – the bar counter is directly in front of you as you enter; there are a few tables and chairs in the immediate bar area; with the room opening up to the right and to the rear of the bar counter. This area on the right was occupied entirely by diners during my late lunchtime visit – indeed the pub was doing a brisk trade. Just about everywhere (walls, ceiling, bar counter frontage) was painted that light grey cum duck egg colour you see so frequently in pubs nowadays. But there were a couple of features worth mentioning – the fireplace on the left that had what looked like a tapestry coat of arms above it, and the fireplace on the right that was being used for the purpose for which it was built – i.e. a real log fire was on the go. Now that was a welcoming sight on a cold November day. This is not a bad pub, as long as you’re happy to drink GK ales, but I doubt whether I’ll be paying a return visit.

Randomness Guide to London - Red Lion And Sun entry