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Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat
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Image posted by Just a quick pint, then I'm off
Submitted on Sunday, 28th July 2024
With picture contributions to 10780 other pubs
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Detail Pages
The Jolly Sisters, Lower Holloway, N7
N7
N7 8AX
Served areas
Reviews of The Jolly Sisters (Average Rating: 6 of 10) see review guidelines
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Jolly Sisters
Proper, old-fashioned locals boozer in the housing estates surrounding Pentonville Prison. Narrow, two-part bar with a bit of breweriana and other semi-traditional tat, with a few benches out on the pavement too. No cask beer of course, and even my pint of John Smith's cost £4.30. Freehold advertised for sale on boards outside so I hope it keeps going, but I'm glad I called in if it doesn't.
On 1st July 2024
- rating: 5
[User has posted 8679 recommendations about 8678 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Jolly Sisters
Indeed, a pub has probably always been this building’s current use, rather than being a conversion as it’s listed as existing here by at least 1850 when the street was probably built. It was a Whitbread’s house, originally known as the New Queen’s Head until acquiring its current name in 1999.
A first in here the other day, to a pub that is only a few hundred yards east of where my grandparents and ten children lived in the 1930s and ’40; I suppose this would have been one of the locals where my grandad drowned his sorrows.
There’s a bit of brewers’ Tudor to the exterior and this theme continues inside with white paint punctuated by rough beams, painted black. The interior is quite small though there’s a larger room to the rear away from the main bar. Furniture is very simple, with claret-coloured swag curtains and a rather dilapidated pale plastic laminate floor. One item of note is an integrated panel of harlequinesque leaded and stained glass, bearing the Whitbread deer’s head trademark. There’s a hurling stick above the bar along with some shamrockery which hints at an Irish flavour; the friendly landlord is indeed Irish. There were a few maudlin locals in on our lunchtime visit – this is very much a locals’ pub, none of whom seemed remotely interested in immersing themselves in the exhilaration taking place on the TV in the form of golf. No ales, of course, so plumped for a Foster’s at £1.85 a half.
This is an interesting little community hub, a throwback to at least the 1950s. I wish it and its customers well, but can’t envisage a return visit, not least because I’m far too young for this type of place.
On 25th May 2018
- rating: 4
[User has posted 2208 recommendations about 2165 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Jolly Sisters
In some ways this is a charming little pub, little being the operative word. When I dropped in here on Sunday I was informed that Spurs had gone 3-0 up, and conscious of my proximity to the Emirates staidum I tentatively enquired whether that was a good thing or not. There was a jovial bunch of well oiled regulars in here watching the football who didn’t take my uncertainty amiss, and one even offered me one of his crab sticks.
This looks like a house conversion that’s been given the brewer’s Tudor look on the exterior, and the so-called brewer’s rustic inside with black beams on the walls and ceilings interspersed with white-painted false rough walls. There are a few tables and chairs, but no room for much more. On the back wall there’s a dartboard, with a shelf near it bearing sporting – darts presumably – trophies.
Unfortunately there’s no real ale – just keg John Smith’s and keg smoothflow GK IPA. There was no sign of any food on Sunday afternoon. This is a friendly backstreet locals’ boozer, but the lack of any real ale would deter me from making a return visit.
On 25th August 2014
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
View more reviews of The Jolly Sisters (6)
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- Facebook - The jolly sisters
- CAMRA WhatPub :: The Jolly Sisters - whatpub.com
Highbury & Islington, 0.54 miles, 10 min walk (show)
Highbury & Islington, 0.54 miles, 10 min walk (show)
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 25 May 2018 by Tris C
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 25 May 2018 by Tris C
- Beer Festivals : No last updated 25 May 2018 by Tris C
- Beer Garden : Yes - Pavement seating. - last updated 25 August 2014 by Rex Rattus
- Car Park : No last updated 25 August 2014 by Rex Rattus
- Darts : Yes last updated 25 August 2014 by Rex Rattus
- Live TV Sports : Yes last updated 25 August 2014 by Rex Rattus
- Micropub : No last updated 25 May 2018 by Tris C
- Pool Table : No last updated 25 May 2018 by Tris C
- Real Ale : No last updated 25 May 2018 by Tris C