Camden Head, Camden Town, NW1

This street corner, just a short walk down the High Street from Camden tube station, has been knocked about a fair bit over the years and presents a bit of a sorry sight these days. You enter into a bare boarded front seating area with three-quarter height wall panelling and an island servery opposite. The bar has a dark wood counter, but no bar back, due to the way the room has been opened out, with a pillar covered in various bank notes from around the world behind Perspex casing being about as close as you’re going to get. Padded banquettes run around the perimeter under large plain windows, gig posters and a unhealthy amount of fairy lights. The room narrows as it passes the bar to the right and via a passage to the left, before opening out again into a rear seating area that almost mirrors the front part of the pub. The seating back here is more basic and there is a lot more dark wood and fewer windows, whilst decor revolves around a simple pub mirror and loads more fairy lights. A half-decent indie soundtrack was playing throughout my visit and there are comedy nights in the attached venue every night according to a neon sign in the front window. The menu includes something called a ‘Smoking Burger’, which is served under a glass dome. When the dome is lifted by the diner, a plume of ‘flavoured’ smoke wafts out, which is quite a fun bit of theatre to watch but could well stink the pub out if a load of them were ordered at once. There’s no cask ale on the bar, but some effort has been made to source some well known craft keg options such as Five Points Pale and Beavertown Gamma Ray, none of which come cheap of course. The bar staff were very nice and there was an interesting customer mix of the sort that makes pub-going in Camden quite fun at times. I didn’t particularly like this place, which made me feel like I was drinking in the ruins of a proper pub. The refurbishments have stripped out any character and identity the pub might once have had, leaving a couple of cheerless seating areas from which to drink expensive keg beers. The staff and people watching were the only real plus points for me and I won’t be deviating from my usual Camden watering holes in favour of this place in the future.

Reverted back to its original name of the Camden Head in 2009 and this is every bit the Camden bar, with the exception that it comes across as more of a transients' destination, for people who don't really know Camden, but come here because of its prominence. A first the other night and the reviews below still hold sway, except that despite not being that busy, we didn't get served despite our five-minute stint at the bar. Ales: just Sambrook's Wandle and that's it. A return visit? No way, Jose.

Dark, loud and busy inside. A few wooden benches outside. Fiver handpumps, offering Greene King IPA and Fireside (£3.90), Shepherd Neame Master Brew, Sambrooks Powerhouse Porter and a cider. OK for a quick pint, but not a place to linger.

Official site of the Camden Head, contains menu and event listing - www.camdenhead.com

Official site of the Camden Head, contains menu and event listing - www.camdenhead.com

Until recently, known as Liberties, the Camden Head appears on the face of it to be a typical Camden venue with a trendily modern approach that steers more towards bar than pub although my initial visit under its new name didn’t actually find too much different from its previous incarnation. The main bar is one large knocked through room with bare floors, pot plants, candlelit tables and twinkly lighting. The central horseshoe bar divides the room into two with a robust front section and a more loungey rear area that also contains a pool table. There are flat screens in both sections used mainly for sporting events. Posters and leaflets dotted around offer a rough guide to what’s on in the music/comedy venue upstairs as well as Camden’s many other similar venues. Beerwise, there are just 2 hand pumps, one being off on my latest visit and the other offeruing a fairly expensive (£3.30) but decent enough quality London Pride. It’s a busy, bustling place that often requires a raised voice to be heard and whilst it fits in adequately among Camden’s eclectic mix of boozers and bars, it’s not really a place I could recommend for more than a passing pint unless you are a true Camdenite.

Randomness Guide to London - Camden Head entry

Randomness Guide to London - Camden Head entry

I take my hat off to this place for selling sausage rolls and scotch eggs from behind the bar (although they are £2 each). They have plenty of lager for sale, but both Adnams pumps were off on my visit. They have 2 plasma screens, although they are very small. Talking of small, they have shed loads of spirit miniatures on display behind the bar, not sure what that is all about. The music is pretty good and I wouldn't mind going back in here again.