The Lamb, N7

I must have walked past this pub many times on the way along the busy Holloway Road to or from the nearby Emirates Stadium, without having really noticed it. However, its inclusion in the latest Good Beer Guide drew my attention to it and I paid my first visit on Monday. As the previous reviewer states, it's very dark inside. Lighting is provided by tealights on the tables, with the bar providing a little light too. 3 real ales are served. On our visit, these were Redemption Trinity & Fellowship & Five Points Best. My Trinity was a little lightweight at just 3%. Craft beers were Three Sods American Porter, Five Points XPA & Good Point Well Made, Signature Roadie, Anspach & Hobday Passion Fruit Sour, Orbit Peel & Howling Hops Dunes of the Cape & Tropical Deluxe. The fizzy cider was Umbrella. I may not pass by so readily in future, but I suspect it gets very busy on matchdays and is probably still best avoided.

Possibly the darkest pub I have ever been in, with dark painted walls and ceilings and illumination restricted to half a dozen red bulbs over the bar and a scattering of candles and candle-effect bulbs, otherwise just lights from the street outside. It seemed to have a long room front and back of the central bar with tables, but difficult to be sure! Very friendly though and with 3 ales on handpump - 5 Points Best and Kent Brewery Session and Cobnut - plus a fair selection of craft, most of which change regularly by all accounts. It would score higher if you could see what you were drinking.

I last came here in September 1993 when this was the Flounder & Firkin. Previously it was Barcosa and has now recently been refurbished and renamed as the Lamb, presided over by the countenance of Jesus Christ no less. Little can be added to the last review, but as a Firkin it was all pale wood with portholes in the floor through which the mash tuns could be seen. Today however it is an extraordinarily gloomy pub. Is the lighting so low to cover a multitude of sins? This is probably the best pub at this end of Holloway Road though there's not much remaining at this end other than the Famous Cock at Highbury Corner.

The Lamb is a decent looking pub with a fairly long frontage. Once inside there is a square shaped room with the bar facing on entry,the room is bare boarded,the front area is L shaped and has normal tables and chairs,the rear area is up two steps. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Kent KGB,which was a very nice well kept beer,the other real ales were Pig & Porter strong Pale No19 and Signiture Backstage EPA. The background music was pretty crap in my opinion. I thought this was a decent enough pub to have a drink in. Pub visited 25/2/2017

This pub seems largely unchanged since previous reviewers' visit. The attractive green brewery tiling is still on the exterior, but little of heritage interest remains inside except perhaps for the (probably) inter-war fielded wood paneling on some of the walls. This pub is a bit gloomier than it could be, with indigo painted celings and walls (although on the plus side the wood paneled walls haven't been despoiled in this way). It's furnished with normal tables and chairs, and has well-worn unvarnished bare boards on the floor. As far as decor's concerned, there are some odd looking musical intstruments around the place, as well as jugs and the like on wall shelves. There were three ales on - the now rarely seen Fuller's Chiswick, Redemption Big Chief, and Hammerton Black Slate (£3.90 a pint). There were no menus on show, or other signs of food, but while I was in a couple of girls had a pizza delivered from outside. I think it's really good that somewhere that doesn't sell food, perhaps because of lack of kitchen space, allows food from outside to be eaten in the pub. This struck me as a simple, and perhaps a little scruffy, pub, with the old boy at the end of the counter slumped over his pint of Guinness. But I found its homely scruffiness a bit endearing, and am glad that it's still a going concern. My pint of Black Slate was in great shape, and certainly punching above its weight for a 3.2% beer.

Deliberately scruffy two-bar pub in an undistinguished arcade. Dark in both rooms, particularly the rear one, with very basic furniture and almost zero decor. Decent reggae as background music, and live music advertised. Friendly bar staff. Three handpumps, dispensing Pride, Sambrooks Pumphouse Pale Ale and Hammerton N1 (£3.80). Overall, despite the rather 'distressed' appearance, I rather enjoyed my visit.

Just a couple of minutes walking distance up the Holloway Road from Highbury and Islington station, this is a somewhat scruffy two room pub trying to muscle into the craft beer scene. The nice, attractive green tiled facade gave me a bit of false hope for the pub’s interior which, despite having its fair share of dark wood panelling, turned out to be a real let-down. The front room has the servery to the rear with high tables and stools opposite and standard tables and chairs along the front wall under large windows. Red padded banquettes and sofas bookend the room, which has some dirty looking floorboards and large stretches of undecorated wood panel walls, leaving the place feeling dark, bare and somewhat uncared for. Perhaps the only items of note are a few musical instruments around the servery and a notice board detailing upcoming live music acts. Past the left end of the bar and an upright piano, access to the rear of the pub can be found. This area is similarly proportioned to the front half with whitewashed brick walls and wooden bench seating. From here you can reach the ‘garden’ – a tiny yard, walled in on all sides, with space for one table and absolutely no swinging cats. As Will mentioned, the choice of music playing over the sound system was varied and interesting. There are two hand pumps on the bar, but one was unclipped on my visit, so I found myself with a passable pint of Hobson’s Best. The keg range was notably more interesting, offering brews from the likes of London Fields, Bath Ales, Camden and Meantime. The staff were a bit off-handish, resolutely chatting to friends/regulars whilst serving new faces like myself. Given the last couple of reviews, I wonder if I caught this at the wrong time, because there wasn’t all that much that I enjoyed about my visit (I didn’t even like the pub sign). Maybe one for a revisit, but I won’t exactly be rushing back.