The Beehive, Tottenham, N17

Dating from around the mid-19th century, this was rebuilt in 1927 in the classic brewers’ Tudor style, featuring on CAMRA’s list of pubs with historic interiors, this being of Regional Importance and grade II-listed; a detailed description and photos (note the stained glass Art Nouveau skylight and fireplaces) can be seen on their site; if you want to see photos of food, cocktails and typical punters (but not the actual interior), consult the pub’s website; muppets! The interior’s a genuine treat, with an authentically baronial feel with a decent soundtrack over the stereo, rather than a minstrel playing a lute; a TV was spotted – off – so presumably sport, if shown, is selective. Décor amounts to some randomly scattered knickknacks and there’s a gazebo-style garden to the rear; typical customers can be seen on the aforementioned website, some attending life drawing classes on Thursdays. The ale front amounted to two unused pumps, then just Five Points Best at £2.25 a half and very good too, served by a friendly barmaid. This is a very nice pub, the best of my five-hole crawl, but the lack of ale choice is a pity; why doesn’t this place serve the excellent Redemption Hopspur, a suitably tribal drink, given its location? Twickenham’s Naked Ladies would also be an appropriate choice, especially come Thursdays…

A well preserved brewer's tudor pub with a historic interior,it's well worth exploring.The first door you come to is for the Public Bar,quiet,no flatscreens here and lots of low tables and comfy chairs.Further along the exterior is a door marked Off Licence but not operating nor is the Jug and Bottle bar within.The side Saloon entrance is where the punters head for with it's long bar,fine wood panelling with other rooms running of it.Opposite the bar are some high tables while through a booth entrance is a quieter back lounge.There is a wide seating area infront of the patio doors to the extensive beer garden with ranks of wooden banches and a sports flatscreen.In fact there are lots of flatscreens and being a Spurs pub the locals were taking much joy from Man City's 5-0 demolition of Arsenal. The food offering looked standard pub grub mostly around £11 such as burgers,ribs,jerk,steak but this isn't foodie and most punters are just quaffing.The keg selection is mainstream and of the 5 handpumps one clip was reversed while the other offered Redemption Hopspur (I've had better,NBSS 2.5,£4.20). A little let down by the paucity of real ale (Spurs were playing at home the next day,so this maybe a permanent state of affairs) but worth wandering around the see what pubs were like in the interwar years.A fine example of it's type.

Official site of The Beehive - beehiven17.com

Official site of The Beehive - beehiven17.com

This is a fine inter-war Brewer's Tudor pub with a large, multiple-room interior, just off the busy A10 High Road. I visited in the run up to a match at nearby White Hart Lane and found the place pretty packed, which made it difficult to get round to exploring in full. Entering to the main bar area you find the servery down the left hand side with a high bar back decorated with lots of interesting old electrical devices. A good deal of standard seating was available in the dark wood panelled space opposite and a few bits of old breweriana enhanced the traditional feel. To the right there was a doorway through to another side room, but having spent the best part of 15 minutes trying to get served at the bar, I wasn't in the mood to negotiate the crowds to explore. A lot of original looking doorways with stained glass panes detailing the room's function (Luncheon Room, Self Service Room etc...) can be still be found throughout the pub. The room opens out a fair bit beyond the bar into a wide seating space with loads of standard tables and chairs and large patio style windows on the back wall. These lead you out to a fine pub garden with loads of picnic bench seating and a large TV screen showing a live football fixture. A stall to the rear was doing barbeque style food which seemed very popular with the large crowd who had drifted out here on a warm Spring afternoon. The pub's future was up in the air a few years back, but the place was thankfully rescued by a local pub company and they have ensured that a good range of ales forms part of the pub's strategy, perhaps explaining their popularity pre-match. Options on this visit were Redemption Trinity, East Coast IPA and Hopspur, Caledonian Flying Scotsman and First Dawn, Truman's Runner and Sambrooks Scrumdown. I couldn't bring myself to order a beer called Hopspur prior to my team's fixture against Spurs, so I enjoyed a few pints of the East Coast IPA, which flew out of the (plastic) glass. My only gripe on this front was that the bar staff were pretty slow in getting through orders, causing a long wait at the bar. This is clearly a good pub that I can't say I feel I've done full justice to, having been unable to fully explore the place. The beer was well kept and this is probably the best ale range you'll find within a pretty large radius. I liked the look and feel of this place and would be very keen to make a return visit to have a proper poke around and enjoy some more of their beer from a proper pint glass.

Located not to far from the fitba. Quite a dark interior with a courtyard at the rear. 8 real ales and food served.