Barfly, NW1

Official site of Barfly - www.barflycamden.com

Official site of Barfly - www.barflycamden.com

As described by Pub Signman not one for a session.

This is the ground floor pub space for the Camden Assembly live music venue which is perhaps best remembered from its heyday at the centre of the Britpop movement, when it was known as the Camden Barfly. It was a bit of a basic boozer back then but has been spruced up and now has more of a cocktail bar feel to it. For all that, the scuffed floorboards, unusual, patterned ceiling tiles and exposed brick walls remain as a reminder of its proper pub days, but there are now smart banquettes down either side of the room and a run of high tables and stools through the centre. The bar is to the rear and has a pretty cool glazed tile counter front with a pewter top and glazed brick bar back. TV screens above the bar continuously looped promotional material relating to cocktails, happy hours and the like, with no mention of beer, and the décor was pretty basic, with very little visual distraction in sight. A surprisingly loud Hindi soundtrack played throughout my stay, masking the sound of the bass from the venue above. The venue itself is upstairs and accessed via a separate entrance down the side street – it’s a pretty decent space with its own bar, so don’t make the same mistake as me by coming here for drinks first – they won’t let you take them up with you. There’s no cask ale here unsurprisingly, and the most exciting keg options were probably Brooklyn lager and Shipyard Pale, with the latter clocking in at £6.00 a pint. There was only one person manning the bar on my mid-week evening visit, so despite the place being almost completely empty, it still took 15 minutes for me to get served thanks to the complex cocktail orders going in before me. This was a real disappointment and a bit of a sorry state for a pub whose name will resonate with generations of music fans. I can’t really think of anything positive to say about this pretty sorry pub-going experience and won’t bother again if I come back for another gig here.