The Wishing Well, Kingsbury, NW9

David Walton left this review about The Wishing Well

Visited 23/04/25

No cask. Keg offering of Guinness, John Smiths, Carlsberg, Fosters, San Miguel, Stella, Coors and original SB.

This is quite a colourful Irish bar driven by the decorative choices in here. The corner entrance on the left edge of the front and the front windows has red and orange-stained glass around the edges. The bar counter is mid left-hand wall and the front wood panelling is painted red and the upper frontage is bright illuminated stained glass, adding crème and blue to the colours in the fronts of the venue. The skirt around the three sides of the bar counter is boarded, but the rest of the relatively compact room is carpeted. As expected, numerous unbacked stools around the bar counter, but they were shunned with bar drinkers preferring the vertical option. There was a fabric banquette under the front window and along the right-hand wall serving regular tables and fabric chairs the other side thereof. Four TVs were showing the snooker and evening racing combo absent commentary rather than showing a bias, the sound provided by an east listening soundtrack. The wall space above the banquette between the two TVs on the right-hand wall was reminiscent (on a smaller scale) of the coloured illuminated bottles in the Brondes Age pub on Kilburn High Road! The ceiling was rather curious, lots of suspended frilly shades on corrugated zinc sheets at the front and then the same finishing with industrial lighting before the same lighting on boarded ceiling at the rear. There was some ledge seating on the walls to the side of the ends of the bar counter but no sighting of a darts area on my visit but not hard to see where it originally would have been 14 years to the day of Strongers visit here! There is a small area out the back, but I suspect a smoker's paradise and a shed load of enamelled art / signage on the walls. It was a very lively venue on my visit and there are worse places to watch live sport than here without it being remotely attractive as a pure drinking destination.

Whilst I haven’t hit upon the Green Man thus far when it has been open, I don’t think it will change my perspective of the post code area, other than drag down my average rating for the area. Cask fans in NW9 really can only rely on the two old school Spoons, unless you are partial to a modern Youngs pubs and a drop of Original or Special. The Moon Under Water shades it for me as the best pub in NW9 for beer choices.

On 19^th July 2025 - rating: 5
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