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Image posted by David Walton
Submitted on Thursday, 31st July 2025
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Detail Pages
Hat & Feathers, Clerkenwell, EC1
EC1
EC1M 5PQ
Served areas
Reviews of Hat & Feathers (Average Rating: 4½ of 10) see review guidelines
David Walton left this review about Hat & Feathers
Visited 30/07/25
No cask. Two hand pumps clipped but with the clips turned around. The offer but no offer was Hobgoblin Gold and their own branded golden ale, if you can't have your own branded golden ale on then what hope is there? Keg was 1664 Blanc, Guinness, Estrella, Brooklyn Stonewall IPA, Dream pale ale from Two Tribes, Angelo Poretti and Carlsberg.
The pub has a bare boarded bar from the corner entrance door that I never thought would re-open as a pub. There is dark wood wainscotting and upper walls painted in a scarlet colour with some deeper red tiling on a couple of the wall pillars. The bar counter is in the rear left-hand corner and is wooden with some top and bottom brass rails. Regular tables and chairs around the outside walls of the space and large but low-level ornamental ceiling lights. The "lounge" bar can be accessed through a walk through in the front or rear of the bar counter and was similarly bare boarded. A pale blue leather banquette fitted along the left-hand wall with regular tables and chairs in front thereof plus a large table with regular chairs crowded around in the front part. Upper walls in that side painted dark blue and some well positioned mirrors adds to the feeling of the inside being larger than it is. Has the makings of a cosy corner venue (albeit in a busy spot) but really let down by the beer options.
On 1st August 2025
- rating: 5
[User has posted 777 recommendations about 774 pubs]
Tris C left this review about Hat & Feathers
Situated in historic Clerkenwell, this pub has a history harking back to at least the mid/late-18th century, the current Grade II-listed structure dating from c. 1860, a commanding edifice occupying a prominent road junction, the name visible to the parapet and picked out in unspoilt Art Nouveau detail to the fascia, possibly dating from around 1900; on and off, the place has inexplicably spent overwhelmingly more time closed than open over the last 14 years and beyond.
With a clutch of barrel tables out front, until recently the place was bordered by what may have been an authentic World War II bomb site-cum-car park, now occupied by the Indigo hotel, for which this pub serves as the customers’ bar. The interior is no longer as cheap as I remembered from peeking through the windows over the years, matching Steve’s observations. It’s now very much a fake Victorian/Edwardian pastiche, with boarded floor, modern etched bar divider – etched glass to the doors probably original – then some dark wood panelling to the walls, with either a burgundy colour scheme to the front room, cerulean blue-themed to the rear, with Anaglypta and white translucent tulip-style chandeliers descending from ornate burgundy ceiling roses with gilded acanthus leaf motifs (see photo), with much pseudo early 20th century neo-colonial bric-à-brac affectations; a good ‘80s’ soundtrack played. Customers were young though few for a 9.30pm visit last night, seemingly all transient, making for a rather bleak and soulless environment.
There were two pumps with reversed clips – one for Hobgoblin – then a feeble, bare bones keg selection with Guinness and a pseudo ‘craft’ offering of Two Tribes Dream, £3.50 a half, cold and fizzy, albeit served by an attentive, professional barman.
There’s the kernel of a decent pub here, despite the sub-optimal location within EC1, but Hobgoblin isn’t a quality cask beer and quite how the pub could be so remiss as to fail to even furnish me with such a dull cask beer at peak Friday acts against the pub; get a decent cask selection and actually serve it rather than hint at its availability, then your score will go up.
Rated: 4.5
On 26th July 2025
- rating: 4
[User has posted 2266 recommendations about 2218 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about Hat & Feathers
The Hat and Feathers is an impressive large building that dominates the junction of the Goswell Road with Old Street and Clerkenwell Road. It unfortunately has been a bit of a famous derelict monument in recent years with the grandeur of its exterior slowly fading away.
However it got purchased by some pub chain or other a couple of years ago who brought back to life, albeit more as a restaurant as a pub with an upstairs restaurant and a downstairs bar area more aligned to eating than drinking. But that’s not a bad thing, as at least it kept the use instead of turning it into flats or office space.
What wasn’t a good thing was that any hope that the interior would be looked after and cared for so that it matched the superb Victorian exterior evaporated as soon as you saw the All Bar One bland interior that was put in. The wonderful exterior woodwork and etched glass doors and windows remain as does some of the original interior original woodwork, but the characterless pine tables and chairs which fill the now very bland pastel decor space give you the feeling of eating and drinking in an Ikea showroom.
The usual chrome tap stuff is on offer along with a solitary hand pump dispensing Spitfire. I did visit about a year ago to at least try the beer, but the service was so shockingly slow and disorganised, I turned round and left without achieving my goal. And when I walked past again the other evening it wasn’t open. So worryingly it may have succumbed again in these hard business times. But let’s hope not as, even with the now bland interior and crap service, this is a building worth preserving.
On 27th November 2011
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2279 recommendations about 2135 pubs]
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- Official site of Hat & Feathers - hatandfeathers.co.uk
- CAMRA WhatPub :: Hat & Feathers - whatpub.com
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 : Yes - Restaurant/bar for the adjacent Indigo hotel. - last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Beer Festivals : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Beer Garden : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- CAMRA Discount : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Car Park : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Darts : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Function Room : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Jukebox : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Karaoke : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Live Music : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Live TV Sports : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Micropub : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Pinball : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Pool Table : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Quiz Night : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Real Cider : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- Wheelchair Access : Yes last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
- WiFi : No last updated 26 July 2025 by Tris C
