The Glory, Haggerston, E2

Situated adjacent to the Regent’s Canal’s towpath at the junction of Hoxton and De Beauvoir Town, this pub dates from the early/mid-19th century, has gone through too many names to bother mentioning; suffice to say it’s now a gay venue and I suspect that the Glory is just an abbreviation for glory hole. I couldn’t really see any remainder of the original pub’s interior, but there’s a black lino tiled floor, shades of grey colour scheme and glitterball with some disco lighting, mainly directed at the raised stage area to the rear right, with a tinsel curtain by way of a backdrop. Furniture is surprisingly traditional, with flowers in bottles and tea lights to tables; a good soundtrack (Sparks) played in the background; décor amounted to eclectic prints, some a bit homoerotic. There are predictable drag or similar acts (with hostesses going by names such as Vanilla Parker Balls), some ticketed in the basement and a weekly quiz: The Weakest Twink. Customers were mainly otters or twinks, with a few women by way of punctuation. No cask course, my half of Brooklyn pilsener coming in at a horrific £3.55, served by a serviceable Justin Hawkins lookalike. This place is ok for what it is and as not as in-your-face (so to speak) as some of the gay venues in Soho, making for something different when in the area, but the far better Stag’s Head is round the corner, despite the lamentable choice of cask.

The Glory is a basic corner pub situated towards the bottom end of Kingsland road. Once inside there is a smallish single oblong shaped room which runs to the rear where there is a decent sized stage,the floor is tiled and the seating is bench type to the front right and normal tables and chairs elsewhere. There were no real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Guinness Dublin Porter which went down well,there were also other keg bitters on the bar these being Revisionist Pale Ale plus one more i could not read my notes of. I am always happy doing basic pubs like this. Pub visited 11/6/2016

Official site of The Glory - www.theglory.co

Official site of The Glory - www.theglory.co