The Beehive, N9

Located down a fairly unremarkable back street, this is a large suburban Greene King pub that has undergone an extensive, and largely off-putting, refurbishment. The pub has a shallow but wide, staple-shaped interior with the servery along the mid-section of the rear wall. Entering past the extensive front garden seating area, via the right hand entrance, you find yourself in a bare boarded section of the pub with a couple of tables to the front and a pool table further back. A brick fireplace on the side wall adds a little character, but the area has been decorated with some truly awful wallpaper which makes it look unbelievably bland and sterile. There's an open area to the rear that has been used as a bit of a dumping ground, with children's high chairs and extra tables all stacked here, making it a bit of a no-go area. Over to the other side of the pub, the left hand section has laminate flooring and acts as a restaurant with drab tables and chairs in three rows, surrounded by a fairy light strewn fireplace, dull grey colour scheme and art prints fresh from IKEA on the walls, plus a Specials Board, that was enigmatically left blank, despite the presence of numerous diners. The bar area in between vaguely redeems the situation, offering a few comfy seating options in another disastrously bland, plain area, remedied only by the bar itself, which has a panelled counter, blue and cream canopy with recesses for displaying some boring ornaments, and a simple, modern bar back. Numerous screens throughout the pub were showing a mix of football and darts with the commentary on, but the lack of soft furnishings throughout meant that this was quickly drowned out by the intense hubbub through the room. There are an awful lot of hand pumps on the bar and Greene King brews unsurprisingly dominate, with Abbot Ale, IPA and a house beer called Bee Knees all doubled up, with guests from St Austell Tribute and New River Five Inch Drop. The latter was a suitably dull pint with not a great deal of flavour and I was served by a fairly disinterested barman. The place was doing a roaring trade, which indicates that either the locals like this kind of featureless drinking environment or else there are no other options nearby. I have no idea how this pub came to be on my itinerary when crawling around this part of town, but it was easily the worst pub of the day and somewhere I'd be highly unlikely to return to. It at least offers a relatively wide selection of ales and may well be worth calling in for a bite to eat r to watch some sports, but I hated the decor (or lack of) and found the place difficult to settle down in.

There are still eight handpumps - two clipped for GK IPA, two for GK Abbot, another two for something called Bees Knees (which is apparently a GK ersatz offering), one unused, and one for New River Brewery Five Inch Drop (£3.75 a pint). The Five Inch Drop was OK, but had something of an aftertaste reminiscent of nettles, which is not really to my taste. On the left as you enter is an area obviously meant for diners as there were condiments on the tables, and the only people eating were seated in that area. But as I didn't sit there I didn't get to examine a menu. In the centre of the pub is a small area facing the bar counter which looks to be intended for drinkers, although there wasn't any obvious reason why drinkers or diners couldn't sit wherever they wished. On the right through an archway is another smallish area containing a blue baize pool table and a couple of fruit machines. It makes sense to me that if you have to have these things in your pub then you separate them from the rest of the pub as much as possible, which is what they've done here. This pub has had a thorough makeover since previous reviewers' visits. Gastro grey is everywhere, except for the bar counter front which is painted royal blue. Personally I much prefer the decor as shown in Roger's photographs from a few years ago. The counter is probably the only inter-war feature left in here, although the top of it is clearly a modern replacement. In accordance with modernist decor, there are witty and profound sayings displayed on the grey painted beams and ceilings. I was hoping for better from this pub; I was expecting it to be my pub of the day. But it did have one beer from a microbrewery to go along with all the Greene King Stuff, and I guess that it was just my bad luck that I didn't overly care for the nettle aftertaste of the Five Inch Drop. But it's still better than a lot of pubs I've been in.

Official site of The Beehive - www.thebeehiveedmonton.co.uk

Official site of The Beehive - www.thebeehiveedmonton.co.uk

A couple of recent evening visits over the last few weeks has found the Beehive continuing to perform as a lively local community pub with a continuing focus on real ale. The south end remains the pool table juke box public end for the lads, the north end for siting and eating whilst socialising and the middle bar section for us who prefer to remain vertical whilst drinking There are now additional pumps from my previous review to make the total 8 as Roger mentions below on the central bar top and although some of these were doubled up there was still five ales available and these included Adnams Bitter and Ghost Ship and the Fullers Brit Hop seasonal as guests alongside the usually regular Doombar and GK IPA No need to rerate as a 7 is still spot on for me.

The Beehive comes over as a fairly typical suburban local’s pub that certainly ticks most of the boxes of expectation. The interior has been knocked through albeit ther are 3 discernable drinking areas. The décor is quite plain and pretty much pub by numbers stuff with equally pubby furnishings. To the right of the bar through an arch is a public bar area containing a dart board and pool table. There is a flat screen TV opposite the bar itself that doesn’t have the best sight lines and a piano is available for those impromptu “Knees Up Mother Brown” moments. A patio at the front has a few benches and there is a garden to the rear The pub was the local CAMRA pub of the year in 2009 and there is a mix of ales across 8 hand pumps that will be of varying interest including Old Speckled Hen, Bass, Greene King IPA and a guest, JW Lees Chocoholic. One pump also had Doom Bar but this was not available on my visit. It was fairly quiet for my visit (a Saturday lunctime) but the barmaid was certainly friendly enough and got the feeling it is quite a welcoming place. There are a few homely touches and a couple of cute but docile cats that will always attract attention. Unless you are local there probably isn’t much to draw you to the area but, in conjunction with the Stag & Hounds a hundred yards away, you would certainly have a comfortable couple of hours between them if you did find yourself in the area wanting.