Carlton Tavern, NW6

AKA “The one that was demolished illegally and the developers were forced to rebuild brick-by-brick”. Looks very impressive outside though when you get your eye in you can see some bits which are clearly newer, presumably due to irretrievably damaged original materials. No matter. It’s a two-room affair inside, fairly basic but homely enough and was very busy early Sunday afternoon with the impressive (and competitively-priced) roast dinners flying out. Three decent cask selections and my Five Points Gold was in very good nick (NBSS 4) and worth its GBG place – I was assuming it had snuck in based on ‘CAMRA campaigning reasons’. Also available were craftykegs and some ciders. Not bad at all, I might well head back over again sooner rather than later. 7.5

Similar to the previous reviewer, my visit here was long since overdue. I finally made it to this re-built pub yesterday. On a fine summer's day, nobody was experiencing the re-built 2-room interior, with all other customers sat in the pub garden to the rear. The interior is fairly plain and unfussy. Stairs lead from the main bar area to a kitchen and the toilets. The house beer is from Anspach & Hobday and is called The Build Back Bitter, with London Brewing Company London Lush being the guest ale. The craft beer selection was much wider - Goodness Yes, Camden Pale, Off Menu & Hells, London Brewing Company Upright, Five Points Jupa, New Belgium Voodoo Ranger, Harbour Singlefin, Lost & Grounded Helles, Gipsy Hill Hepcat, Anspach & Hobday London Black & Paddington Pale & Umbrella Cider. As with the other reviews below, I agree that this pub is well worth a visit due to the success story attached to it. But it is located in a bit of a beer desert and is not really worth the effort of a re-visit.

The pub has been very well described below from visits over the last year, I too was curious to see how the rebuild went and agree they've done a fantastic job inside and out. As a pub it was operating in a clean and efficient manner, the food aspect was being pushed but not enough to detract from the fact it is a pub. Three cask beers were on house beer Build Back Bitter (Anspach & Hobday), Hammerton N7 and Five Points Pale, unfortunately the latter was not at it's best though still drinkable. A decent pub but like Wills summary below I'd not go out of my way to return.