North Eight, Hornsey, N8

Visited 18/11/24 Two hand pumps both with clips turned round and suspect not dispensed cask beer in a large period of time. Keg options were Carling, Moretti, Strongbow regular and dark fruits, Stella ordinary and unfiltered, Guinness, Corona, Staro, Coors, Fosters and Icebreaker. This is a large, elongated L shaped venue with the bar counter mirroring the shape of the venue until it disappears into the pool table distance. Bare boarded with lots of regular tables and chairs and plenty of TV's on the walls showing evening racing action on my mid evening visit. The venue also has a dartboard and there was karaoke on/going during my visit - I resisted the temptation to partake. Whilst it was nice seeing a pub that obviously attracts mainly locals busy and lively, I found the venue pretty depressing, even ignoring predictable beer range for this type of pub.

Official site of North Eight - northeightpub.com

Official site of North Eight - northeightpub.com

This is a former Watney’s house, later Greene King, dating from the end of the 19th century, though I suspect rebuilt, possibly in the ‘50s. A glum place, it closed in 2018 to reopen in 2022 with a change of name. The interior is utterly stark, with pale modern boarded floor, white walls with duck egg blue reveals, pool table to the rear and a bizarre modern pine bar top, about as deep as a single bed; the only item of heritage I spotted was a polychromatic tiled fireplace surround. Furniture is conventional, prerecorded horse racing was showing in silence on the TVs and furniture is conventional; an enamelled sign depicting the green, white and orange tricolour featuring a legend which reads ‘Ye Olde Irish Pub’, but out of the just six customers at the time of my 9.15pm Thursday visit, three were African, the other three about as Irish as Benny Hill’s O’Jack. Beverages amounted to an extremely basic fizz lineup, the least worst option being a half of Staropramen, £2.50, served by a friendly barmaid. This is a dispiriting place. When you consider that the neighbouring Three Compasses was heaving (no doubt the Great Northern too), it’s clear that the locals aren’t happy to have this one back.

I quite liked the look of the Hornsey Tavern from the outside and i was not dissapointed once inside. There is a single L shaped room with the bar facing,the room is carpeted and has a couple of settees to the front right and normal tables and chairs and small stool elsewhere,the room extends down the left side,there are two slight steps the further down the room you go,there are more normal tables and chairs in this area. This is a Greene King tied,there was one real ale on which was GK IPA which was a decent enough drink and a bargain at £2.00 a pint or £1.00 for the half i had. There was a TV to the front showing a horse racing channel. I thought this was a very smart and comfortable pub to have a drink in. Pub visited 4/8/2016

Corner Greene King pub, opened out at some stage to leave a 'L'-shaped bar with a mix of furniture. Basic decor, with football on the numerous sports TVs, and very much a 'local' feel. However, the lady behind the bar was friendly and made you feel welcome as a first-time visitor. Two of the three handpumps were in operation, offering the inevitable IPA and a hand-written clip for a 4.5% Redemption beer (which I took to be Hopspur, £3.50, and in very good form). Also had a '2nd pint of cask ale for £1' offer which is a good deal.