The Baring, De Beauvoir Town, N1

Stumbled across this rather spartan back street pub when looking for refreshment whilst walking along the nearby Regent’s Canal. The pub looks pretty good on approach thanks to an impressive curved facade which takes in the sweep of the bend the pub is situated on. Inside, things are less impressive, with a simple, single room layout set up in, what might best be described as, a minimalist fashion. The room is bare boarded with the servery on the back wall and has been painted a pretty unappealing shade of grey throughout. The bar has a rather basic, low counter and somewhat out of place craft beer style white tiled bar back. Standard tables and chairs run along the front wall, under some very large windows, following the room round into the slightly larger right hand section of the pub. Here you will find a dusty old bookshelf full of tatty looking tomes and there was also a large pile of board games stacked on top of a dresser to the left of the entrance, underneath an unused flatscreen TV. Decor is severely limited, comprising a few interesting art prints and lots of messy blackboards listing wines, shots, special offers and the like. An 80’s pop soundtrack played throughout my stay and I noticed signs promoting live sport and the availability of wifi. I turned up here early on a Saturday evening and there were only two other customers in, both of whom had drained their pints and left by the time I departed. There were six handpulls on the bar, but three of these were out of action, leaving a couple of ale options – Marstons Pedigree and Adnams Lighthouse – plus Orchard Pig cider. The barmaid was pretty friendly and charged me £4.00 for a fairly average drop of the Pedigree. I was hoping that I’d uncover a quality boozer, but this place seems to have had the heart and soul ripped out of it, leaving just a shell and a faint glimpse of the pub that it once was. Perhaps the place livens up at other points of the day, but it’s somewhat out of the way location suggests it is likely to be reliant on local trade and this was sorely lacking, even on a Saturday evening, which makes you wonder at this pub’s fate.

Curved corner pub with quite a bare interior. 4 real ale taps (2 on during my visit).