Railway Tavern, Barnet

This is a Charles Wells pub with (unsurprisingly) Bombardier and Wells Eagle (£1.80 a half) on. The Eagle was past its best, but just about drinkable. I didn’t see a menu, but I did spot some condiments on one of the tables, so I guess they must do food at some times. I suppose that this might be an “Irish” pub judging by some of the accents I heard, but I didn’t see any “failtes” anywhere so maybe not branded as such. Anyway, it’s not a bad little pub. It’s bare-boarded, is furnished with normal tables and chairs, has the usual flat screen TVs on the walls (muted and showing Sky News when I was in on Wednesday afternoon), and had some motown tracks playing at background volume levels. I spotted a fair bit of sports memorabilia on the walls – one piece a framed golf related montage, and others seemingly Arsenal related. The only item of a traditional nature that I noticed were the classic green banded glazed windows, indicating that it was once a Charrington’s pub. This pub was very quiet, with just me and a handful of other punters in. I quite like the pub, and hope that I just picked a bad day for ale quality. But I have to say that I still prefer the nearby Builders Arms and Lord Kitchener pubs.

I think that this is the best pub out of the five or six in New Barnet. The pub was busy, but I was served promptly in a friendly manner. Young's Ordinary, Eagle IPA, and Bombardier were all available along with standard lagers. The crowd was mixed and seemed very nice and the pub has Sky and Setanta that is shown on numerous plasma screens, there are even a couple on the wall of the urinals so that you don't have to miss a kick when nature calls. My Bombardier was very good making this place my pub of choice in the area.