Drayton Park, N5

This is another very basic pub that is probably best avoided when Arsenal are playing at home. It's clearly a locals' pub as there was a group of them around the bar counter in the room on the left. It's carpeted throughout; there are TVs around the place; the room on the right has a pool table, and there's still a bit of old Courage signage on the bar back. There's no real ale, and no sign of food late afternoon on a Wednesday. I can't see any real reason to want to make a return visit, but I'm very pleased to see that this pub's still here for the locals to enjoy.

Very very handy for the fitba (away fans pub). 2 roomed 2 bar pub. Standard draught selection.

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This is one of the designated away fans pubs for teams coming to play at the Emirates, with the walkway to the away end of the stadium being located just over the road. As you would expect, the pub was absolutely packed on a recent match day and arguably a little understaffed at the bar, with queues reaching almost all the way back to the entrance at one point. The pub has a two bar layout, with the servery along the back wall, and each bar is roughly the mirror image of the other. Virtually all of the seating had been removed to allow for maximum vertical drinking space (or maybe the pub has no furniture), with just a few low stools and fixed seats left around the perimeter of the two rooms. The bar has a simple counter with a nice gantry and plain bar back which I had plenty of time to study as I stood in what felt like a never ending queue. It was difficult to gauge what the place might be like on a normal evening, but I did spot juke boxes in both rooms, so maybe they do get things going here a bit on a regular night. I’d expected to see plenty of Arsenal memorabilia on the walls, but to my surprise there was almost nothing of the sort on show. A door to the rear left leads out to a small paved garden area which offered some much needed overspill. There was no ale on the bar, with keg taps offering typical lager options alongside John Smiths Extra Cold, Guinness and Strongbow. I had a couple of pints of John Smiths which were pretty unmemorable and certainly not worth the long wait at the bar. The staff were working furiously to try and get through all the customers waiting at the bar and beyond, but were fighting a losing battle and really could have done with a couple more pairs of hands. This is a fairly basic pub of the sort you often find around football stadiums. I enjoyed a bit of pre-match banter in here, which made the queuing more tolerable, but there was nothing that made me think the place would be worth returning to.

This is a basic two bar pub located directly opposite the entrance to the Emirates Stadium so it is extremely busy on match days with Arsenal and away fans alike. The front ‘public’ bar has a pool table as the main feature and a dartboard in the corner that looked heavily used. The back bar has some more seating and a TV up in the corner for showing football on Sky Sports. There is no real ale here, but I was served a decent pint of Guinness from the very friendly governor who was engaged in some banter with the few locals in attendance on my Saturday evening visit. There is a jukebox that was playing some Tom Jones hits and I imagine that this place hasn’t changed in many years, except for getting busier with football fans since the Gunners moved home. I wouldn’t go out of my way to drink here again, but I would be happy to have this pub as my local.

Randomness Guide to London - Drayton Park entry