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Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat
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Detail Pages
The Salisbury Hotel, Harringay, N4
N4
N4 1JX
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8 of 10) see review guidelines
Pub SignMan left this review about The Salisbury Hotel
This is a pretty amazing Victorian survivor of the sort that crops up here and there around this part of London. It’s a highly ornate, multiple roomed pub with a great interior that merits extended exploration. You enter through a fine left-hand side porch with a mosaic tile floor, etched glass door panes and intricate stained glass upper panels, plus a detailed metal filigree pub name sign above the entrance, eventually emerging into the spacious bar area. Here you’ll find smart parquet flooring, red wallpapered walls with a plain upper strip, an unusual, padded bench to left with individual seats, a button backed sofa and lots of standard chairs elsewhere. The bar is to the right and has a dark wood counter and grand matching bar back with detailed columns, etched glasswork and some huge stuffed birds on the top. A lit fireplace to the rear left has an attractive mirror above, large ugly blackboards cover a side wall and list the full drinks selection, whilst large pillars run through the middle with decorative capitals, lintels, and smart roses around lights. There’s also a big collection of plants in the front windows which makes it feel a bit like drinking in a greenhouse if you’re sat too close by. Moving through to the rear bar, you find an amazing mosaic tile floor, walls painted in a deep shade of red with another lit fireplace, more individual seat benches plus a collection of small round mirrors and two snugs to the rear - one with a very low entrance. A door to the rear left was signed for a ‘Lounge’ but I didn’t explore. The room is split in two by drawn curtains for no apparent reason and the bar here has more blackboards above and some beautiful wooden pillars along the counter. Back to the entrance, a door to the right leads into another bar, which has a slightly more relaxed feel, with a chequer tiled floor, huge arched windows along two sides, an etched glass former entrance porch, more potted plants in the windows and a defunct section of servery also lined with much greenery. Button backed banquettes extend around the perimeter, with standard tables and chairs elsewhere and two low slung sofas at the far end. Some of the disused porches have high tables and stools in them which gives you the feeling of almost being able to drink outdoors. Music was playing but it was hard to hear anything above the noise from a large Thursday night crowd.
The pub always offers a selection of cask ale and the options on this visit were Shepherd Neame Whitstable Bay and Late Red plus Black Sheep Bitter. Three real ciders occupied the remaining handpulls and my pint of Whitstable Bay was in good shape, poured by one of the efficient bar team. The pub was packed on arrival, and it took most of my visit before I was able to bag myself a seat.
There’s a lot to admire in this pub, and despite having the chance to wander around the place quite extensively whilst waiting for a table to come free, I still feel like there’s plenty more to discover. The ale range was perhaps a bit pedestrian – Shepherd Neame brews aren’t likely to see a mad rush for the bar – but the beer seemed well-kept and worthy of recent inclusions in the Good Beer Guide. I really liked this place and thought it was well worth seeking out – a must do for anyone interested in traditional pub interiors.
Date of visit - 10th October 2024
On 3rd January 2025
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]
David Walton left this review about The Salisbury Hotel
It is hard to describe this venue as anything other than an absolutely magnificent venue. Everything about it is lovely. True it is a bit of a trek from transport hubs but as with all pilgrimages you have to do the hard yards to get your reward. It is what Tim Martin experienced as wet dreams in his youth when he fantasised about the perfect pub. Forget Orwell’s Moon Under Water the perfect pub has a name and it is the Salisbury N4. It is the combination of a magnificent premises, the mosaic floors, the beautiful tiling, the exotic, indeed seductive and erotic flow of the bar around the venue. Add to that the vibrancy of the entire age spectrum enjoying the perfectness of the pub. The young, my age and the elderly were all revelling in this venue during my meagre hour plus stay on a crawl when I am generally arriving and thinking about the next tick. This is the tick for all ticks, come here and abandon your planned crawl, start, mid or towards the end and accept you have found pub perfection. True, you get reminders in the lavs saying protect your stuff because there are high bag thefts in the area, but look beyond the practical but mere mechanistic.
No point listing beers as if some regular reminder. Took a photo of the current chalk board before tucking into three or four of the perfectly kept cask ales. You arrive here with plans of the next venue and even if they are some of the great alternatives in N4, save them for another time when undoubtedly you will also revisit here. As when Jack Nicklaus was reminded in 1973 he had been seeking perfection all his life after when witnessing the Belmont Stakes he saw it with Secretariat’s 31 length victory, this is pub perfection. I thought I had found the best with the Robin in N4 but now I have found another, unrivalled, location also in N4, the UK’s best pub postcode in my view!
On 14th August 2024
- rating: 10
[User has posted 631 recommendations about 631 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about The Salisbury Hotel
This is a corner pub on the grand scale: a magnificent building with several entrances, some of which were not in use, and stacks of benches waiting to be put back out whenever the weather became suitable. I arrived half an hour before 5pm opening time and had to walk around to keep warm, but it was worth it to get to see the glorious interior. This was the final pub on my London's Beautiful Pubs route and a fitting climax. I challenge anyone to say this is not a beautiful pub!
The large central bar has several rooms around it, though there's an airy and open feel about the place. The corridor from the door by which I entered has a small private booth but mostly it's just normal pub furniture. Each room has a slightly different character, but there are details in the ceilings that are shared by all. See my photos for some of the features, or better still, come along and see for yourselves.
There were three real ales on offer: Fullers London Pride; Koomor Trunk, a Kentish bitter; and Three Sods Old Normal, a pale ale. I went for the latter, but after finding it not to my taste and having decided to eat here, I went for the Kentish bitter as well. It seems the pub business and the Totopos Mexican restaurant are separate businesses: there are menus on the tables and the bar staff will direct one of the serving staff to your table if you don't catch them as they go around. They do all home-made tortillas, enchilladas and nachos; I had the vegan version of the nachos, and it was good but quite honestly half as many would have been quite enough and I might go for something different another time. The beer was under £4.50/pint and my food was £11.
This pub is quite a long way out from the centre, and another time I might look for other pubs in this part of town to make a more localised crawl. One thing's for sure: there won't be anything to touch this for magnificence and beauty.
On 5th October 2021
- rating: 10
[User has posted 4273 recommendations about 3935 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Salisbury Hotel
A first into this Grade II*-listed CAMRA National Inventory entry the other day and my God, this has to be one of the country's most opulent pubs. It wouldn't really be possible to describe the interior, so it's best appreciated on the pub's and CAMRA's heritage websites - indeed the CAMRA site makes the interior look a bit washed out.
This is an enormous pub with numerous coal fires keeping the cold at bay, and features a huge billiards room to the rear with a rather ominous projector screen showing something which may have been adverts. Due to plague protocols I couldn't really explore, except by way of using the loo (good and two cubicles if you will) as well as the in/out anticlockwise navigation system; I sat in one of the booths near the entrance. Customers seemed to be a mixed bunch and certainly a more inviting set than you see in other Green Lanes hostelries, perhaps deterred by the prices charged here.
Staff were friendly and efficient though there was just one ale on, the egregious London Pride, a smidgeon of shame on the place, so I opted for a pint of decent Guinness at a painful £5.04.
This is simply a must-visit pub, especially as it's now in the hands of the Remarkable Pubs Co.
On 23rd October 2020
- rating: 9
[User has posted 2208 recommendations about 2165 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Salisbury Hotel
A magnificent Victorian interior awaits anyone visiting this CAMRA National Inventory pub,it's a very fine example of it's type.I entered through the side entrance from Green Lanes with it's mosaic tiling which carries on into the pub itself.There is a tiny alcove,then several banquettes in black leather before a wooden fireplace.Through an arch there is a parquet floor in a more open section and this is where you will find the functional handpumps on the large island bar,there are a lot of non functional handpumps dotted about.The bar back is lit and has display cases of stuffed animals along with bottles and glasses.Finally there is a front bar .Everywhere there is fine etched glass,original features abound.Look up at the impressive ceiling,ornate and classy .There are columns supporting the ceiling in the bars.It's all very attractive as is the imposing exterior.
There were 4 handpumps operating on my visit drawing Redemption/Kernel collaberation Victorian MILD,Brew Buddies Wokka Light,London Pride and Hammerton N1 (decent nick ,£4.25 but I suppose someone has to pay for the interior upkeep).There are a lot of craft keg options too.There is a short burger menu with veggie,vegan and meat options for the patties.There is a late licence at weekends up to 2am and there was gentle muzak.A flag indicates it's gay friendly and there is a more mixed crowd in here compared with the other pubs on this part of Green Lanes.
Make sure you inspect this pub if in the area ,and with a decent ale selection I may well stay longer on my next visit.
On 28th July 2018
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2936 recommendations about 2936 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Salisbury Hotel
This magnificent pub had been on my hit list for some time and am glad to say I finally paid a visit, definitely worth the effort in my opinion. The pub was built in 1898-9, which was designed and built by John Cathles Hill, along with it's sister pub the Queens in Crouch End. The pub was busy on our Sunday afternoon jaunt. The service was fine and there was a choice of six ales on handpump, so we opted for the Redemption Big Chief, which was excellent and also tried the Sambrooks Pumphouse Pale Ale, also in good shape.
The pub was serving Sunday lunches in the large rear room on our visit and a jazz band was setting up for an evenings entertainment. The pub has lots of original features and I especially liked the private booths near the front entrance with a fine example of an intricate mosaic floor. The rear bar area also has the original spittoon running along the plinth.
On 29th February 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3645 recommendations about 3645 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Salisbury Hotel
A Fuller’s pub now I suppose, as there were only Fuller’s ales on when I visited recently, with the ubiquitous London Pride; Discovery; Gales HSB; and Jack Frost on. I didn’t see a pump for either Chiswick or ESB. They also had two Litovel’s Czech lagers on, as well as Aspall’s Suffolk Cider and Hooegarden. I went for the Fuller’s Jack Frost, which was my first pint of this seasonal brew this year, and although it was very good, it was also very expensive (in my opinion) at £3.40 a pint.
The pub itself is an absolute tour de force of late Victorian interior pub decoration. It rightly features on the CAMRA inventory of heritage pubs. It really still is the big, rambling “gin palace” that it was in Victorian times. All the extravagant features are still in place, including the separate rooms, mahogany fittings, etched and cut glass everywhere, and the mosaic flooring is the best I’ve ever seen. It’s big enough that I’m sure it would take a couple of hundred people in there to make it look crowded.
The service was friendly enough, once I had followed the sound of voices to the bar where the only barmaid was working. There was a food menu, but it was a bit too “gastro” for what I fancied at the time. Sometimes you don’t want anything too fancy, and I didn’t fancy paying nearly £9 for a burger or £3.25 for some chips. The pub was empty on Saturday lunchtime, but I suppose it might be a very different place in the evening. In any case, it’s certainly worth a visit to see what a Victorian gin palace looked like in all its glory.
On 11th February 2010
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Strongers . left this review about The Salisbury Hotel
This is a lovely looking Victorian pub that is well worth a visit for the fixtures and fittings. The problem that I find with these big sprawling places that have a central bar is that there are never enough staff and when there are they all congregate in one area so that a whole section of the bar has woeful service. Once I was finally served I had a nice pint of Pride from the range of Fullers beers that were available and the barmaid was friendly enough, although the pot boy did spill some alcopop over me as he walked past and offered no apology.
I think that now I have been here I wouldn’t plan on making a return visit.
On 5th September 2009
- rating: 6
[User has posted 5965 recommendations about 5931 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john mcgraw left this review about The Salisbury Hotel
A very grand and ornate pub with seperate dining area.Fuller's beers on tap.Opens 5pm Mon-Fri and 12 noon Sat & Sun.
On 3rd May 2007
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2044 recommendations about 2025 pubs]