The Bedford Tavern, Finsbury Park, N7

A mid-19th century pub originally known as the Bedford Arms which closed in 2009 to reopen in the current format in 2014. It’s also a bit of a surprise that no one has reviewed this place before. You enter into an area with the raised bar’s right end ahead. The floor throughout is modern boarded with some dark paint of an undefined colour to the right side with very distressed brick to the left with a raised sculpture carved from roughly hewn wood in letters that read ‘BEER’. Lit from the rear, it looks like something from the Flintstones (see photo). Up two steps, the main three quarter depth and there really isn’t anything remaining from the Victorian era, apart from four attractive slender cast iron fluted structural columns, leading the eye up to the white ceiling with much ugly exposed aluminium ductwork. Furniture is conventional and décor comprises a few pot plants and a number of prints, including a large map of the world to the rear wall. Modern lighting sources provide little illumination and music is a bit too loud, coming from the likes of SZA Feat and Travis Scott. Customers were largely young and the food here revolves around the burger; lavs were clean and modern. The bar staff were decent enough, with multiple taps dispensing the likes of Aspall’s and Smirnoff cocktails with Hammerton’s Panama Creatures, Blue Moon, something from Gravity Well and two from Neckstamper: Elbow Crooker and Little Mizzle at £5.50, tasting somewhat generic but fine. This isn’t a great place, looking like it was cobbled together at speed and a bit on the cheap. Still, it seems to appeal to the young crowd who are more than welcome to it, as there are more traditional pubs in the vicinity. Rated 3.5.

Official site of The Bedford Tavern - thebedfordtavern.com

Official site of The Bedford Tavern - thebedfordtavern.com