Railway Tavern, N16

One of two Railway Taverns in the immediate vicinity of Dalston Kingsland station, this place briefly traded as Old Henry's Freehouse in order to distinguish itself, but soon reverted to its traditional name. The pub is run by the same people behind the excellent Pineapple in Kentish Town and Tapping the Admiral in Camden, so there are some pretty high standards to live up to. I'm a little surprised to see the pub referred to as 'scruffy' by the previous reviewer, as I thought it was quite a smartly presented traditional pub, although my interpretation of 'scruffy' may have been seriously skewed by an earlier visit to Farr's School of Dancing! You enter into a bare boarded room with the servery on the back wall to the left of the entrance. The bar is a pretty classic set up in dark wood and with a canopy that boasts some nice support pillars whilst a row of suitcases, a few old cameras and a walking stick are perched on the top of the canopy. Opposite, a few padded benches and standard chairs offer basic seating options next to the day's papers. Over to the right there are some upholstered benches and low stools, filling up an awkward shaped area which tapers to a point at the far end. A lovely tiled fireplace acts as a focal point here with its decorative mantle and surrounding collection of pictures of station platforms. The train theme is rounded off with a luggage rack high up on the wall with a couple more suitcases on it. To the left, a small seating area in a space with red walls, serves two or three tables and has been decorated with more train themed pictures and a tube map. The room extends to the rear past the left hand end of the bar, into a small lounge with comfortable seating options and another nice fireplace. Classical music was playing throughout my stay and a few customers were enjoying decent looking Sunday roasts. There are six handpulls on the bar, but two were off on this visit, leaving a selection of Kissingate Black Cherry Mild, Westgate Gold, Redemption Big Chief and Acorn Gorlovka Stout. A board next to the bar lists all the beers on offer (be they cask, keg or bottled) that were brewed in London, which seems like a nice way to encourage people to buy local, although two Pressure Drop beers on keg cost £6.00 a pint each, which seems like a good way to put people off buying local. I tried the Black Cherry Mild, which I was a bit dubious about but I have to say it was sublime. This was a bit of a wildcard on my recent crawl around Dalston (I was unaware of the pub's links to other fine establishments at the time of my visit), but it turned out to be one of the best of the day. I ended up spending much longer here than intended and would be keen to make a return visit sooner rather than later.

Basic quite scruffy locals pub.One long rectangular bar. Few tatty railway pictures is the décor.Nowt wrong with the beer.4 handpumps with Redemption -trinity-big chief and hopspur.Also Adnams -American ipa.2 keg beers on from Pressure Drop.