Maynard Arms, Crouch End, N8

Visited 07/01/26. Visited previously 21/03/22. Cask amounted to three hand pumps providing their own branded ale, Old Golden Hen and TT LL. Keg comprised Pravha, Estrella Galicia, Guinness, Signature Brew Haze Machine, Sandford Orchards Devon Red cider, Lucky Saint, Siren Soundwave IPA, Panama Creatures from Hamerton, Moretti, Juicy Chug Hazy IPA from Jiddler's Tipple, Asahi and Guinness. This is a larger pub than it appears from first sight on the bar counter side of the venue! There is a small amount of picnic bench seating out the front, for reference purposes only at this time of year. It is bare boarded apart from a tiled skirt along the bar counter which is on the right-hand wall to the front of the venue. There is a corner fitted tan leather studded banquette in the front right-hand corner serving tall tables with tall, backed stools the other side thereof. There is a small, raised area served by a banquette along the left-hand wall and regular tables and chairs. Tall tables and regular tables down the middle to the rear area which is up a couple of steps and the area comprising regular tables and chairs laid for diners. Before the couple of steps up and just beyond and opposite the end of the bar counter are a few tables served by leather bucket style armchairs and this was a nice space to enjoy my pint. Indeed, the dining area continues along the rear of the venue and there is another seating area partly served by leather banquettes running off that near the open kitchen serving hatch. No obvious screens, background easy listening music and a feeling the venue was mainly a dining destination, the tables at the front of the bar area seemingly mostly occupied by younger people treating it like a serviced office to work!

The Maynard Arms in Crouch End is a Victorian pub originally built in 1851 by the Maynard family, hence the pub name. However, this is a pub that has clearly been modernised and changed over the years to reflect and address the changing demographic of Crouch End and feels anything but a Victorian corner boozer. It advertises itself as a Pub, Kitchen and Garden, which is a pretty accurate description of what you find when you enter the front door. It’s now quite a sizeable interconnected internal space aiming at the Gastro dining pub crowd and has a decor largely described below. The first section you enter into from Park Road is the bar area, with an elevated section to the left and stool, table and comfortable settee seating mainly along the edges. Then there is a smart dining section in the section beyond and behind the L shaped bar. This then opens out into a very pleasant multi sectioned courtyard garden area to the end of the pub. It clearly has a focus on food, but at 6pm on a Wednesday evening it was reassuring busy with the afterwork drinking crowd and although the dining section was empty, both the bar and garden were full of drinkers only. This is one that clearly appeals to a younger demographic than your average CAMRA card carrying member, and there were several groups in, but also several singletons working on their PC’s, both in the bar and the garden. I know others mind this type of activity in a pub, but in one of this size I can forgive it, especially as the bar area with its tons of natural light coming through the sizeable front windows must be a better spot than home working on a fine weather day. The good news for CAMRA members though is that we are accommodated with a couple of decent ales and an offered CAMRA discount. The pub is managed by the Metropolitan Pub Company, the Green King Arm that seems to have a lot more freedom over which beers they serve. For my visit the available ales were TT Landlord, Signal Brewery Absolutely Fuggled and Crouch End Cask. I swerved the GK brew (you didn’t need a lot of intelligence to work out that the Crouch End Cask was one of theirs) and went for the Signal brew which was a well kept pint, and took it out into the garden to enjoy it. I thought they got the balance of Gastro food focus and wet sales quite well here and as I have got over any downer on historical pubs that have had to modernise to survive a long time ago I am happy to give The Maynard Arms the rating it deserves.

The Maynard Arms is a corner pub that is painted in the London black colour. Once inside there is a long oblong shaped room which runs to the rear,the front area is carpeted and has bench seating and settees,there is a small raised area to the front left,the bar is on the right side,this area is bare boarded and has normal tables and chairs,there is a table football opposite the bar,the rear area is up one step and there is a dining room off this to the right. There was a decent choice of real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Trumans Swift which went down very well,the other beers noted were Porobello Star,Portobello Summer Bloom,Alchemy Blonde and GK IPA. There was background music playing which was crap. A decent enough pub to stop off a for a drink while on a pub crawl. Pub visited 4/8/2016