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The Canonbury Tavern, N1
N1
N1 2NS
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Canonbury Tavern
Tucked away down a backstreet, but still very quickly and easily reached from Highbury and Islington station, this is a very large gastro pub in what looks like quite a well-to-do residential area. You enter to a huge main bar area with bare boards and dark painted walls plus two brick pillars in the centre which help to break up the big open space a little bit. Mid-height tables and stools are arranged along the front wall, under windows with potted plants on the sills, whilst high tables and stools form a row through the middle of the room, between the aforementioned pillars. Seating is rounded off by banquettes and pews along the left side of the room, including in a smaller, cosier space to the rear left where a large number of portraits cover the wall space. Impressive light features hang from decorative roses across the ceiling and the rest of the room is fairly sparsely decorated, with just a few framed historical documents dotted around the walls. The bar along the rear wall has a nice panelled counter which contrasts the less appealing modern bar back which has been lined with hops, presumably to take the edge off the bright, white spot-lit shelving units. The pub extends a considerable way to the right, where a separate, sizable dining room can be found. There is a great deal of additional chair, banquette and sofa seating through here, as well as a centrally positioned fireplace, which suggests some form of long-lost partitioning. The walls have three quarter height panels with a number of old paintings above and overall, the room feels a little more appealing than the main bar area where a drab synth-pop soundtrack complimented the dull interior design.
Five handpulls on the bar were dispensing Youngs Ordinary, Sharps Doom Bar, Twickenham Naked Ladies, St Austell Proper Job and a real cider. The friendly barmaid pulled a pretty good pint of the Proper Job, which set me back an improper £5.20.
This is one of those pubs that feels far too big for its own good, leaving a small handful of customers scattered around two very large rooms, resulting in no atmosphere. Whilst the building is impressive, the décor is rather dull and the prices are pretty steep, so I can’t see me heading back here when there are better options closer to the station.
On 3rd July 2020
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about The Canonbury Tavern
A pleasing looking pub located a bit off the beaten track in an attractive leafy part of Canonbury. The boarded main area has the bar along a back wall and has exposed yellow stock brick columns, large chandeliers and globe lights. There is a mix of high tables and regular seating in here, a side return has a few booths reminiscent of a 70s Wimpy Bar, above on the wall are portraits of Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell together with Orwell's wording of the ideal pub, The Moon Under Water, he apparently spent some time writing here.
Beyond this main room the pub expands out much further into an area with a large through fireplace, gladly well lit on a miserable day. There is some good wood panelling in here as well as fancy cornices and ceiling roses.
Board games are available and there is a secluded outdoor garden unusable on a day of windy wet weather.
Beers on were Youngs Bitter and Special, Winter Warmer (£4.70), Courage Best and Wimbledon Brewery XXK. Food served obviously and possibly a priority, tables were not set in anticipation thankfully but did have small posies of flowers in small milk bottles like we used to get at school prior to the milk snatcher being elected.
Earlier reviews suggest to me that this place has changed somewhat for the better however the interior doesn't offer what the exterior promises. It was not a bad spot though and kept me warm and dry for half an hour.
On 26th January 2018
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1707 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Canonbury Tavern
Recently returned to the full name of The Canonbury Tavern, it's clear that this once deserted pub has had a makeover since my last visit documented below. Gone is the awful marble bar top (which matched the one in the lavs), replaced with a down-to-earth wooden one. The floor has either been stained or replaced as the vanilla ice cream-coloured boards have been replaced with something darker and more in keeping with an actual pub. The tea lights on tables in their awful purple containers have gone as have the ridiculous super-high bench tables and chairs. The dire mirrored panels to the central columns have also been removed to reveal bare brick which although not perfect, is a vast improvement. The colour scheme is the all-pervasive shades of 'gastro blue/green/grey' which actually go quite well in a large opened out pub like this. There are black leather(ette) studded banquettes to the perimeter and furniture is now far more restrained and conventional, though the rear dining area with its free-standing flame effect fire remains, though it no longer dominates the proceedings. Quite incongruously, given the pub's location and style, a live Irish folk band played. Odd, given that this wealthy enclave is in no way an Irish area and it's a bit at odds with the gastro affectation. It's on at Wednesdays at 8.30, so you know when to avoid it, but given the pub's size it didn't deafen and I really didn't mind it one bit.
I can't remember the price of my pint of Sambrook's Wandle but it was fine.
This pub's current incarnation is a vast improvement on the former Xanadu theme park and is worth popping in if in the area, especially if you want to avoid the appalling attitude meted out by staff at The Marquess Tavern around the corner, but it's not a destination pub. Former regular George Orwell lived around the corner from here - was it this place that was the inspiration for his utopian Moon Under Water?
On 5th July 2017
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1983 recommendations about 1949 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Canonbury
We made this our final pub of the day because one of our number was seduced by the prospect of a pint of Sambrook's Wandle (£3.60 a pint). The other ales on were London Pride, Doom Bar, and Truman Attaboy. This is not the sort of ale selection for which I would make a special effort to visit a pub.
This looks very much like a pub from the outside, but when you enter you swiftly realise that you are in a restaurant with a hotel lounge attached to it. The dining room occupies a large area to the right, with the drinking area as you enter furnished with a mix of tall tables/tall benches, light coloured upholstered banquettes and scrubbed pine coloured tables. There's nothing original left inside, with the place having been madeover to death. It definitely qualifies as a gastropub, though there was the odd thing on the the menu that I vaguely recognised - e.g. Steak & Guinness pie with winter greens and butternut squash (for £13.95). There was a fair bit of outside seating, and I would guess that this would be the best place to sit when the weather was fine enough.
I'm sure there must be loads of Canonbury and Islington residents who reckon this place is the height of comfort and sophistication, and good luck to them I say. But I'm unlikely to visit again.
On 27th January 2015
- rating: 4
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Canonbury
Distinctly upmarket bar/restaurant, which has been substantially refurbished with modern decor and furniture. The building has been opened out to form a 'U'-shaped space, one branch of which is set aside as the dining area. There is also the 'Blue Room' upstairs and a large patio beer garden at the back. Attentive bar staff. Relaxed atmosphere. Three beers on handpump - Landlord, Pride and Doom Bar (£3.80, in good condition and served in the right glass). Not really my sort of place, but as these things go I thought it pretty well done.
On 27th November 2011
- rating: 7
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
elizabeth mcgraw left this review about The Canonbury
Now re-opened after a major refurbishment,Now serving 3 Real Ales
On 6th September 2010
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 252 recommendations about 249 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about The Canonbury Tavern
This is a big bright pub with a large restaurant area at the rear and a range of expensive standard and premium lagers alongside Black Sheep and Timothy Taylors Landlord and Golden Best. There are plasma screens dotted about the pub that were showing a muted black and white film during my visit, which I thought was a bit over the top.
The barman that served me was friendly enough and I didn't find this place anymore offensive than the many other gastro pubs in London.
On 8th September 2009
- rating: 5
[User has posted 5233 recommendations about 5201 pubs]