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Disappointment of the week with Tris39
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Detail Pages
Hemingford Arms, Barnsbury, N1
N1
N1 1DF
Pub Type
Metropolitan Pub Co (Greene King)Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about Hemingford Arms
An Ivy ensnared pub with a great interior well described before me, the beer selection wasn't quite so glorious with Greene King Ipa, house beer Hemingford Gunner, T.T Landlord and Gorgeous Glowfly which turned out a bit like homebrew. However well worth a look.
On 12th June 2022
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about Hemingford Arms
Date of Visit: 23rd June 2018
I was a regular in here with the office crowd when I worked around the corner from 1992/3 and it hasn't changed one bit, aside from the fact that the gent's loo is now downstairs. It's still covered in flowers and the interior has everything you can imagine hanging from the ceiling: musical instruments, a tricycle… Much as described below, this pub is about the most gloomy I've ever entered; nothing new here. Two TVs were showing the World Cup which provided some much-needed illumination. The crowd here is mixed: spanning the ages, some well-heeled yuppies and local American bohemians. There are games machines and the floor is carpeted.
Ales: several, changing from one visit to the next but typically at least three. My pint of Hammerton’s N1 (brewed in the same street) was fine and inexpensive.
Very much a local institution and worthy of a visit if on the N1 trail.
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A return visit last night and the only obvious change is the welcome removal of the games machine. However, there are still two blindingly bright TVs showing two different games which absolutely no-one was watching. They are so bright and distracting, doing much to ruin the ambience in this otherwise wonderful pub. I can understand if Arsenal or England were playing, but Scottish teams?
The ale selection as mentioned by BF is very basic with just Pride, a house ale and Landlord at £2.55 a half and ok, despite the Hammerton's brewery being only a few yards away.
This is a good pub but it could be so much better with the removal of the TVs or at least very selective broadcasting.
On 15th April 2022
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1983 recommendations about 1949 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about Hemingford Arms
The magnificent floral display is a feature here,the ivy encrusts the lower exterior walls ,and may well be holding the building up !There are exterior benchs running around the pavement but the interior is worthy of inspection.There is a wooden clad island bar but the striking features is the amount of brc a brac hanging from the ceiling,mostly musical instruments but not exclusively.The carpeted interior ,brown ceiling,windows partially obscured by foliage leads to a dark interior but the lighting is traditional and pleasing .The walls are covered with metal adverts and music hall posters.Lots of traditional furniture and a charming small snug below a growning library display was by the side door.The etched glass is a feature and there is genuine character to the place.There is a first floor function room and live music will occur at weekend.
Numbered tables if you want to order the thai food,but the two sports flatscreens will be turned up when there is sporting action and the locals treat this as very much a boozer,there was a lot of banter before the different matches kicked off.
The bar sports five handpumps but three were reversed ,leaving just GK IPA and ,this close to the brewery ,a regular in Hammerton N1 (NBSS 2.5,£4.80).The keg range was very mainstream,nothing craft.
I liked the boozer atmosphere and had there been a wider and more interesting real ale range ,a higher mark would have been awarded.I gather that normally there will be 3 ales on ,with TT Landlord a likely regular.
Worth a squint,gardeners will also approve.
On 17th September 2021
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about Hemingford Arms
The ale selection in here was reasonable, but no better than that even though they had four ales on. The ales on were: Doom Bar, GK IPA, Purity UBU (£3.80 a pint), and something called “Hemingford Gunner”, which I suspected might be re-badged GK beer and thus avoided. The only food available seemed to be Thai, and which typically seemed to be a separate business to the pub, as you ordered and paid for your meal at a hatch to the kitchen. A standard chicken/ginger stir fry and rice weighed in at £6.95.
The building itself is covered in foliage, in an apparent attempt to offer some competition to the Churchill Arms in this respect. The building may have some signage on it, but there’s no way of knowing under all the foliage. Inside it’s carpeted, and furnished mainly with settles, normal tables and chairs, plus some small stools. But what sets this pub apart from most others is the mass of bric-a-brac everywhere. Hanging from the ceiling is a collection of just about everything imaginable – including music instruments, sports equipment, jugs and the like, a couple of swords, and even a stuffed badger. You don’t see that in a pub every day! They’ve even gone to the trouble of putting up a heavy duty shelf between a couple of the cast iron pillars in the centre of the room to display some large barrels. No space here is left unfilled. Other things of interest here are the original vestibules at the two entrances still in use; the matchboard wooden panelling on the ceiling; and the rather nice stillion as a centrepiece behind the central island bar. There were a couple of TVs on showing the football, and I saw a quiz night advertised for Thursdays.
It doesn’t look as if a great deal of money has been spent on this place in recent years, and frankly it’s all the better for that. Long live preservation by poverty! This place has retained all its original pub character, and I would be delighted to pay another visit sometime.
On 25th August 2014
- rating: 7
[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 Hemingford Arms
Corner pub near Caledonian Road & Barnsbury station, with an attractive exterior (covered by vegetation) and interior (with each wall and the ceiling covered by memorabilia and bric-a-brac). Plenty of wooden benches on both frontages, and some traditional furniture inside. Five handpumps on the main part of the bar - offering Adnams, Doom Bar, UBU Purity, Bombardier and Fuller's festive CW (£3.50) - and two more (disused) at the back. However, I was offered a pint that was topped up from a part-filled glass which I had to insist very firmly to be changed for a freshly-poured one. Apart from that, I though this was a pretty good pub.
On 15th May 2011
- rating: 7
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Alan Winfield left this review about Hemingford Arms
The Hemingford Arms is a corner pub that is covered in ivy and flowers on its bottom half i had to ask inside for the name of the pub.
There are quite a few picnic tables outside the pub and once inside the pub was very nice with lots of bric a brac hanging on the walls and ceiling.
There was an island bar with drinking areas around it and also a lot of wood pannelling giving the pub a cosy feel to it,there were four real ales on the bar i had a drink of Sharpes Doom Bar and this was a very nice drink the other beers were London Pride,Adnams Broadside and Deuchars IPA.
I quite liked this pub and it was fairly busy on my visit.
On 6th February 2011
- rating: 8
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about Hemingford Arms
Most pubs in this area were very quiet on Saturday evening, but this pub was very busy with a mixed clientele. The Guinness was good and although the Pride and Seafarers were off Ubu, Deuchars and Doom Bar were still available alongside some standard and premium draught products. Food is served from midday until 15:00 and from 18:00 until 22:30 and on Sunday roast dinners are available from midday until 16:00. There is a function room upstairs that is available for hire, a quiz on Thursdays and live music is advertised for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, although there was no sign of any when I visited at 20:30. Sky Sports is advertised, but I didn’t spot any screens for showing it – Maybe this was due to the strange red lighting throughout the pub that made it difficult to see anything. It was hard to ignore the many knick-knacks that were hanging from the ceiling that included golf clubs, accordions along with some brass instruments, typewriters and an old Methodist church sign.
There are plenty of picnic tables that stretch around both sides of this corner pub and there are some nice flowers that pop out of the completely ivy covered exterior walls. The pub sign is actually covered and I only knew what pub I was going into by reading the A-board outside.
Some effort has been made with this pub and the large crowd suggests that the local residents like the place; I certainly would have no problem in returning.
On 16th August 2010
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5232 recommendations about 5200 pubs]