The Blackstock, Finsbury Park, N4

Official site of The Blackstock - blackstockpub.com

Dating from the mid-19th century, this was originally the Blackstock Park Hotel. As mentioned, this was an extremely basic boozer, home to old men who appeared to have lost the will to live. Now the place has had a substantial makeover. The floor’s boarded with walls that are bare brick, though the rear is papered with black wallpaper featuring oversized roses; the ceiling is black. Although most furniture is fairly conventional, some tables look like they belong in a grand dining room. Décor comprises illuminated stained glass box lamps over the bar, then amateur oil portraits to give a stately home feel. This is augmented by grand gilded rococo mirrors and crystal and Victorian-style candle chandeliers, but the strangest of all shades I’ve ever seen are towards the fireplace, looking like three inflated condoms (see photo). Part of the rear is garden themed, with a trellis covered with fake ivy; the whole looks like it was designed by Vivian Westwood. The island bar is grey field panelled, with a leaded glass divider by way of a bar back. Dominated by a phalanx of illuminated chromium Guinness harp founts, there’s real ale up to a point, with a pump sporting a reversed Doom clip, then another unused. I plumped for a half of Gamma Ray at £3.50, served by a perfunctory barmaid. Despite the great improvements, this isn’t a great place but it’s a joy to behold compared to the Twelve Pins opposite; a better choice of real ale would get the score up.

Official site of The Blackstock - blackstockpub.com

They have clearly introduced real ale since the previous reviewer's visit, as they had on both London Pride and Adnam's Ghost Ship (£2.40 a half!) when I visited recently. There was no sign of any food on a midweek afternoon. This is a bit of a barn of a pub. It's bare-boarded like most places these days; ceilings and walls are mainly painted black, but with some fairly ugly exposed brickwork. On the plus side, some of the furnishings were quite elegant including good quality dining room tables and high-backed dining chairs. There were no tall tables/tall stools nor sofas - in fact there was a lot of open space with no furniture. Overall I though this pub was fairly shabby around the edges, although it's probably improved since BF graced the pub with his presence. My half of Ghost Ship was in good shape though - but at a steep price. I can see this pub might be very popular later in the day, but it didn't come over as a relaxing place to enjoy a quiet pint.