The Springfield Tavern, Bowes Park, N11

This is a late 19th century pub situated on a busy road; a Taylor Walker cannon can still be seen atop the pole sign; I too am not sure if this is a stealth Greene King outlet. I can’t be certain if the interior has had yet another makeover since Steve’s review, but it’s totally modernised with what is in effect a modern ‘Victorian’ interior: gone are the dartboard and pool table, now a greyish modern boarded floor (raised area to the right-hand side), patterned graphite or wacky ‘jungle foliage’ wallpaper, though a very fine cornice to a white ceiling; the rear appears to have more of a cocktail bar/restaurant appearance, all visible on their website. There were multiple screens showing silent horseracing, décor taking the form of those awful ‘portraits’ of humans with dogs’ heads. Customers were few for a Friday at just gone 8.00pm and all examples of your typical British Bloke. There was cask, but not one I’d opt for, with Deuchars or GK IPA, a half of Neck Oil, £3.40 served by a friendly barmaid. This place is a far cry from the Ranelagh down the road, the preferred option in N11.

Facebook page of The Springfield Tavern - www.facebook.com

Official site of The Springfield Tavern - www.thespringfieldtavern.co.uk

Facebook page of The Springfield Tavern - www.facebook.com

Official site of The Springfield Tavern - www.thespringfieldtavern.co.uk

I was slightly worried when approaching this one from the direction of Bowes Park as missing letters would have you believe the pub is called The Pingfield and I wondered if it would have a Fawty Towers vibe inside as well. Fortunately not and it turned out to be a decent enough one room pub. Not sure if it is anything to do with Green King as none of their products were in evidence for my visit and two of the three available hand pumps were badged with Marston’s Pedigree and Brakespears Best and the latter was a decent enough pint. Now one internal opened out space with plenty of comfortable spacing, there were probably too many screens for my liking including one very large dominating pull down one which may just have been for the current Football World Cup. There also a good smart external courtyard area out the back which looks like it was brought up to date recently, presumably as a result of the Covid restrictions.