The Axe, Stoke Newington, N16

I tried visiting here a few times some years ago, but it always seemed closed. On one occasion though, I peered through the window to see a man sitting at a table using a laptop. When he spotted me, he jumped up and went behind the bar; I turned and walked away, which is a shame because I may have seen the original interior as what exists now is certainly part of the transformation from Jan’s, formerly the Cricketers. It’s a reasonably spacious interior with garden out back, but is fairly swish. Not too minimalist or industrial, but quite pleasant with some pot plants to the interior window sills. A rough bare boarded floor of course, with several fixed slatted pale wood benches to the periphery, thereafter fairly normal tables, chairs and stools. The walls are covered with matchboard to around ½ height and are painted slate grey, along with the walls above. Thankfully, the ceiling’s white. A further smaller section of wall is clad in rectangular glazed white tiles, which are in evidence to the island bar which has a dark grey matchboard front and wooden top. Illumination isn’t that bright and I suspect is poor at night, coming from small spherical lamps fixed to the walls with exposed metal trunking and similar hanging from the ceiling. Customers seemed to include Americans and plenty of beautiful young women in floaty skirts and oversized sunglasses – you can tell you’re in Stoke Newington. Ales: something Belgian at 6.2%, Harvey’s Best and Redemption’s Trinity at a very reasonable £3.80 a pint and good. I don’t know what a half cost, as the inattentive barman served me with a pint. This may no longer be a traditional pub, but it’s not half bad. If only they had a wider and better selection of British beers, rather than specialising in Belgian rocket fuel I’d be more inclined to return, but this pub is certainly worth a visit if on a crawl of the area. Open until 1.00 am on Friday and Saturday.

Official site of The Axe - www.theaxepub.com

Official site of The Axe - www.theaxepub.com

This used to be my local when it was called The Cricketers.