The Oxford Tavern, Kentish Town, NW5

I came here once around 1988 when it was called the Vulture's Perch and didn't return for about 14 years, at which time the lavatories were some of the worst I'd ever seen. A return in October 2016 to a Greene King outlet, revealed a thoroughly made-over primped venture with utterly rancid ale and pumping music. Rebuilt in 1863, recently refurbished yet again and reopened in the last few days under the stewardship of the West Berkshire Brewery and some degree of sanity has been reinstated, the pub now being more muted. The wood-panelled dining room remains, but the main bar has been toned down a bit – gone is the overly embellished modern bar back, replaced instead by one of a simpler wooden design. The bar is wood topped with a dark field panelled front. Bare filament bulbs hang above from long flexes. The floor is bare and of slightly rough boards. The clichéd indigo colour scheme has been eschewed in favour of refreshingly simple white, applied by way of camouflage to the air handling’s limited ductwork. There is though a little bare brick. There’s also a beer shelf with stools to part of the picture windows along Islip Street. Furniture is conventional with some Britannia tables and normal stools. They are though positioned quite far apart, meaning that there’s a lot of vacant floor space, so even though there were few punters in, there was nowhere to sit, which for me is a bit of a deterrent – if I’d come here with friends for an evening, we’d have gone elsewhere to find a table. However, seating or not, we’d have gone elsewhere because of the thumpingly loud music, rendering conversation all but impossible – some things don’t change then. Ales: Mister Swift’s Pale Ale (off, but oddly without a reversed clip), Mister Chubb’s Lunchtime Bitter and Good Old Boy Best at £4.60 a pint, best described as a boring brown beer. Overall the Oxford Tavern is a big improvement over the Oxford, the end result is something which is thankfully more pubby, but the mundane ale, limited seating and especially the loud music must result in a below average score.

Official site of The Oxford - www.oxfordtavern.co.uk

Official site of The Oxford - www.oxfordtavern.co.uk

The Oxford is a corner pub that is very handy for Kentish Town Tube and rail stations,i needed the tube so this was a good pub to end my pub crawl in. Once inside there is a long oblong shaped room which runs to the rear,the room is bare boarded and the bar is on the left side,the seating is bench seating and chairs,the rear area was set for diners,where there were normal tables and chairs,there was an open kitchen on the mid left side. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Trumans Bow Bells,which went down very well as my last drink on my pub crawl,there was also Southwark Full Sail and GK IPA on the bar. Decent background music was playing but not loud enough for me. I thought this was a decent pub that was very busy on my late Friday afternoon visit to end my pub crawl in. Pub visited 2/6/2017

The ales on here were GK IPA, St Austell Tribute, Belhaven Grand Slam, and Twickenham Grandstand (£4.15 a pint). A reasonable selection without being anything very exciting. Food is on the gastro side of things – Baked Dover Crab is £16; Rare Breed Dexter Beef Burger is £13, Fish & Chips is £13, and Sea Bass £16. I had a decent club sandwich, with some chips in a little metal bucket, for £8. According to the menu Sunday roasts are also available, but not priced on the menu. But although it’s not totally a gastropub it did have the bar counter, the bar back and ceiling all painted indigo; there was more than enough exposed brickwork for most people’s taste, and the seemingly now obligatory water container complete with cucumbers or some other green vegetable was on the counter. But on the plus side there were only two or three tall tables/tall stools, and with plenty of banquette seating, standard tables, stools and recycled church chairs. This pub dates fron 1863 according to the mosaic tiling on the floor in one of the entrances. There are still a few original features remaining – the bar counter is definitely original and you can clearly see the division between the old public and saloon bars with the more elaborately decorated counter in the old saloon bar area to the right. Indeed the vestibule leading into the old saloon bar is still in place, with another bit of mosaic tiling on the floor declaring it to be the saloon bar. On the right is a single storey room that’s now used as a dining room, but looks as if it may once have been a billiards room, although there’s now no skylight. There’s some ouside seating on benches on the pavement. Apparently there’s a function room and cocktail lounge upstairs, but I didn’t bother to go exploring up there. Quiz nights are on Tuesdays. A big minus for me was the reggae music being played too loudly for my taste. There was a steady stream of punters dropping in on Wednesday lunchtime, but it never got very busy. I bet it gets noisier in the evenings, especially if they continue to play music as loudly as at lunchtime. But it did the job for me, by providing a half decent pint and a bit of reasonably priced (for London anyway) scran.

This Victorian era street corner pub, close to Kentish Town station, seemed like a decent bet for a pint prior to a gig at the nearby Kentish Town Forum. It has a fairly simple layout, with the front part of the pub set up for drinking and the rear part reserved for diners. The servery runs down the left hand side of the deceptively narrow, bare boarded room and has a row of standard and low stool seating directly opposite. The walls and pillars have been painted in rather dull shades and there is very little in the way of visual distraction, apart from a formative pump clip collection behind the bar. Eventually the servery transitions from bar to kitchen, at which point the room opens out slightly and formally arranged tables fill up a slightly more attractive space, dominated by a large blackboard which lists the entire menu. A few standard lamps complete the décor, but it’s still all a little bland and unfortunately the toilets are situated at the rear of the dining area, which isn’t ideal for drinker or diner alike. A door near the front of the bar leads upstairs to a comedy club and various posters and flyers around the room promoted upcoming shows. There were three ales on hand pump – house beer Oxford Kentish Town Ale (a re-badged Greene King beer according to CAMRA), St Austell Proper Job and Truman’s Bold as Brass. I found myself with a pint of the latter which was probably past its best. Keg options included two beers from the Camden Brewery as well as Hog’s Back Hazy Hog Cider. The front half of the pub was packed when I visited, so it was hard to get comfortable propped up at the bar and this was even more frustrating as the dining section was half empty. It was encouraging to find a few ales available, but the quality wasn’t great and I can’t see me returning when there are other more reliable pubs in the vicinity.