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Duke of St Albans, NW5

15 Highgate Road
NW5
NW5 1QX

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Blue Scrumpy left this review about Duke of St Albans

The Duke of St Albans was the last remaining Good Beer Guide entry in North West London for me to visit. So, I was overdue a visit here.

The pub is situated on a prominent corner looking towards Parliament Hill Fields. The interior is bare boards with an impressive bar bearing the name of the pub against the rear wall, with a semi-open kitchen to the left-hand side of it. Outdoor pavement seating was also proving popular. Dogs and kids are welcome.

There are 6 handpulls on the bar. The pub was having a Woodshedding Brewery tap takeover, with 4 of the pulls clipped with their beers - Best of Both Worlds, Fresh Mild Beer, By Furrow & The Jump. A fifth handpull was clipped with SeaCider Passion Fruit. Craft beers also included a couple from Woodshedding - No Dig & Luncheon. Other keg beers were Track Sonoma, Left-Handed Giant Pink Lemonade Radler, Vault City Peach & Lemon Table Sour, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Duration Good Times, Anspach & Hobday London Black & Saint Monday Session IPA, American Pale Ale & West Coast IPA. In addition, Sandford Orchards Devon Red & Gosnell's Honey & Ginger were also on.

Menus on each table listed the beers and food. A couple of half pints of the cask set me back £6.20. A pint was £6.10. A CAMRA discount is not actively promoted and I only benefitted from the 10% discount when a drinking colleague walked in and I ordered another pint. Payment is also by card only.

The beers I tried were ok, without being particularly special. Service was similarly average. The Duke of St Albans feels more like a gastropub than a drinkers' pub. Prices are on the high side too. So, it's unlikely I'll return here too often but being just a 9-minute walk or 2 stops on the bus from Southampton Arms, I wouldn't rule it out.

On 14th September 2026 - rating: 5
[User has posted 3596 recommendations about 3594 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

paulof horsham left this review about Duke of St Albans

Wood is the theme here - floorboards, bar top, seats and tables - all wood so, combined with a chaotically arranged beer board where the trailing zero will certainly not be displayed, you know you're in a venue which is up with all the latest trends. This obviously includes round 16 craft taps, some of which are pouring Saint Monday, a London brewery associated with the pub. Fortunately, there's also half a dozen handpulls, with the likes of Marble, Saltaire and Bristol Beer Factory featuring, along with a cider. A limited food menu is also offered.

The seating (being wood, with no cushions) doesn't encourage an extended stay and the bar blocking stools are annoying, but it's worth popping in if you're in the vicinity, though you'll surely have the Southampton Arms just down the road on your itinerary as well.

On 25th August 2024 - rating: 7
[User has posted 691 recommendations about 642 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

David Walton left this review about Duke of St Albans

Had spotted that this place was due to re-open but seeing Tris’s review of a few days ago I launched my self here from the depressing experience of the Islington Arts Club. This is more like it and I felt rewarded for the short trek on Overground to this vibrant venue.

Music v low and hardly noticed above the chatter of a full venue. Modest change to the cask selection, minus the Redemption and Harvey’s quaffs but added the Vale Black Beauty Porter. Suspect the Harvey’s will be back and the board suggested the Ilkley Blonde but two turned round clips suggested two down on the day. My Bishops Farewell was greeted and good-byed rather rapidly.

On 17th April 2024 - rating: 8
[User has posted 1975 recommendations about 1937 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Tris C left this review about Duke of St Albans

This pub dates back to at least the mid-19th century, once a Truman’s house and formerly a rather scummy locals’ pub which I studiously avoided. It closed around 2007 and was converted into a Greek restaurant that retained the freestanding pole sign.
This is run by the same people behind the Axe (N16) and Earl of Essex (N1), with its awful acoustics and feeble cask choice. It reopened on 9th April 2024 and on approach, it’s good to see the original sign retained, standing sentinel over the site; beneath, is a non-smoking front patio.
The interior is of course new, but tasteful and traditional with a boarded floor, dark stained wainscoting to off-white walls and burgundy ceiling, both swaddled with Anaglypta (see photos). Furniture is conventional, with some peripheral oxblood studded banquettes or pews, conventional lighting and a few mixed prints. There’s a beer board displaying a substantial selection of 16 keg taps – some Belgian – listing brewer, style, ABV and price; a beer menu to tables lists a further 15 options in bottle or can, including sours, dark beers and again, some Trappist monky business.
A very credible cask lineup amounted to Oliver’s Cider, Harvey’s Sussex Best, Redemption’s Big Chief, Five Points Brown Brick Field, Oakham’s Bishops Farewell and Titanic Plum Porter at a steep £3.00 a half and in perfect condition.
Just 150 yards north of the Southampton, this makes a great addition to a crawl of the local area and is a definite benefit to the Kentish Town/Dartmouth Park/Highgate drinking scene. The lack of electronic entertainment is a bonus, less so the Country & Western soundtrack.

Rated 7.5.

On 12th April 2024 - rating: 7
[User has posted 2344 recommendations about 2284 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Strongers . left this review about Duke Of St Albans

Unfortunately this is now a Greek Mediterranean restaurant called The Carob Tree. The old Duke of St Albans pub sign can still be found at the top of the post at the edge of the property, but this is the only indicator that a pub used to be located here.

On 7th March 2010 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 6826 recommendations about 6787 pubs]