The Ice Wharf (JD Wetherspoon), Camden Town, NW1

Official site of The Ice Wharf (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Ice Wharf (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Smart modern Spoons with a bit of a view across the lock. Bar is at a lower level with an almost craft venue feel – open-plan, black colours, wood and a bit industrial. Four guest cask, my Maxim Double was getting towards end of life with long pour traits (NBSS 2). Upper-end prices as to be expected in this formerly cutting-edge area which is now more a bloated tourist trap and weirdo magnet, £3.84 a pop for mine before the application of the blessed Timbo Token. A high point was my breakfast wrap, best I’ve had with a lovely runny egg. Unusually for Spoons, there's a pot boy on patrol. Pub is named after the adjacent wharf which was built in 1837 for ice imported from Norway.

A very modern and completely open-plan canteen inside, the outdoor seating was preferable on a sunny morning. Just two guests to supplement the three usual boring ales, GK IPA at £1.99 is a steal in London of course, shame it’s one of my least favourite beers. Typical touristy Wetherspoons, it does the job but not very inspiring.

This is a 'spoons so the interior won't throw up any surprises. It's right by the canal, so the outside seating is a massive plus on a warm day. Camden being a tourist area it was very busy on a weekday afternoon; it's a big pub and we just about managed to find a table. I guess Camden's tourist credentials also accounts for the fact that the price of the guest ales (which I negligently failed to note) was higher than that in most suburban 'spoons. I guess this one's main selling point, as opposed to most other 'spoons, is its lovely setting. I would be very happy to visit this one again should I have the misfortune to find myself in the heaving tourist hell that is Camden.

A vast modern Spoons by the side of the canal, in the middle of the tourist area so usually busy and with 'inexperienced' pub-goers at that. They did however seem to be coping quite well with the numbers and there is plenty of space on the two levels, with a long bar on the inner lower one, plus tables outside. Guest ales seemed to be mainly local-ish, with examples from Westway, ELB, Wimbledon and Windsor alongside the usual ones. Condition was good. I didn't especially want to like this place at first, but it grew on me. And the toilets are on the level!

A large and modern Weatherspoon’s immediately adjacent to Camden Lock, it offers little in the way of any merit as far as the building goes but nonetheless the outside seating is a pleasant spot on a sunny day to sit and look boats passing by and the hordes of tourists in the market opposite. The building itself has a curved frontage with large windows and is all one cavernous open space inside. A montage of black and white photos of the local area covers the end wall whilst colour photographs replicate the local streets in the corridor leading to the gent’s loos. Flooring is partly laminate wood and partly a mustard colour carpet. Tables and chairs are packed tightly in to maximise the pub’s food revenue, although there is plenty of vertical drinking space near the long bar counter. Their International Real Ale Festival was in progress during our visit so the beer range was no doubt somewhat different to usual, but on this occasion consisted of Abbott Ale, Elgood’s Plum Porter, Everards Regimental IPA, Wicked Weed’s Sir Ryan The Pounder, Thwaites Coiled Spring, Wharfe Bank Black Geld, Hildegard’s Solange, London Pride, Mateo & Bernabe Fermín Red Ale and Standeaven African Pale Ale. Ciders were also well represented with Strongbow, Brothers Pear, Stowford Press and Thatcher’s Gold.