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Disappointment of the week with Bucking Fastard
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Detail Pages
The Prince Arthur, Old Street, N1
N1
N1 6EB
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Prince Arthur
This pub is in a bit of a mess.It's a small street corner boozer in an unpromising location and looks uncared for.The small interior looks like someone has just moved in with tressel tables stacked against a wall,some very rough and worn large tables and bench seating dominating the two bow windows and cheap curtaining hanging from the tracks and around the draught excluding front door rail.The lights were off on the keg taps and the lower back section despite retaining a small Victorian fireplace had a jumble of oversized furniture which made it look cluttered.Seating is advertised up on the first floor but this also serves as a function room and was being hired by a hen party.I didn't investigate so as to avoid being mistaken for a striptease artist.
The barmaid was friendly enough and the muzak was very good ,so maybe the vibe here is distressed chaos when I was expecting some pub charm.There is still a Shepherd Neame tie with Bishops Finger,Whitstable Bay and Spitfire Gold being served together with a guest in Kansas Avenue Brewing (Hydes) Zesty Jester which was decent enough.
If you want to avoid the interior,over the road there are some exterior benches but the view of social housing may limit their appeal.This pub is IMHO a missed opportunity,unless you appreciate disorder.
On 12th August 2018
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
hondo . left this review about The Prince Arthur
Tucked away on a back street. Bare boarded interior with a central bar. 4 real ales.
On 22nd September 2017
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2883 recommendations about 2820 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Prince Arthur
It's clear from the reviews below that this pub has had a bit of a makeover to take advantage of the area's ongoing gentrification. Gone is the scarlet Neame livery, replaced with a dark Georgian shade of green - very nice it looks too. I had thought that this was going to be a rough locals', given the blocks in the immediate vicinity, but the clients were a very mixed bunch. Some American City types, a couple of elderly sauced-up Irish locals and a pub weirdo, who engages all in conversation and who can't get the hint that some people don't want to talk.
The interior is split level and tiny. The pot shelf is shrouded in hops and furniture is very rustic modern and intentionally so. Above at least one table there are now some giant industrial lights and a pew seat which had cushions made from South American coffee bean sacks!
My half of Spitfire Gold (£2.00) was very decent and sensibly priced; the barmaid was very nice too.
I'd come here again, but perhaps the drunken locals should be given the heave-ho. Then I'll give it a higher mark.
On 26th May 2016
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1983 recommendations about 1949 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Prince Arthur
I returned here after some three or so years to see if the place was still surviving, and got a bit of a shock to find the place busy with disco music blaring out and several people prancing about the floor,including one geezer looking like something out of ZZ Top. Amused and bemused at the same time I ordered a pint of Masterbrew (very nice) and found a vacant table in a corner.After a while ZZ came over and apologised for the scene unfolding before me and explained it was a birthday party and it's not always like this, we had a brief chat and I learnt long time landlord Dixie Dean left a couple of years ago but the pub is still ticking along nicely, good to hear as its a nice little boozer.
On 2nd May 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Prince Arthur
Not quite sure what (if anything) is happening here, since the Shepherd Neame branding has been taken off the façade and pub sign but it is still listed on the company's website and they still supply the beer. Anyway, it is quite a distinctive-looking old place amongst the anonymous newer blocks in the vicinity, with the front door and attractive windows either side protruding slightly from the façade. Compact 'L'-shaped bar, with a rear seating area (featuring a nice log fire) down a single step at the back. Semi-rustic furniture and decor. Master Brew, Spitfire, Bishops Finger and Whitstable Bay pale ale (3.70) available from the four handpumps. Also has the Whitstable Bay blonde lager on tap. Worth seeking out.
On 5th March 2014
- rating: 7
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
picasso 09 left this review about The Prince Arthur
This is what I would call a proper no frills trad boozer. Shepherd Neame beers have always been top notch when Iv'e visited,a real locals pub although what I gather from the landlord all the regulars are not local people,a sad reality of modern community's and any pubs reliant on them. well worth a visit.
On 30th March 2012
- rating: 7
[User has posted 14 recommendations about 14 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about The Prince Arthur
This is a small attractive looking locals pub hidden away in a side street close to Old Street and amongst some grim looking housing blocks and 1960’s offices.
Frosted windows at the front of the pub and carpeting throughout help create a traditional cosy atmosphere. Separate doors ( one now no longer in use ) indicate that this was probably a two bar pub in days of old.
An L shaped bar counter serves a small area at the front part of the pub which is furnished with traditional banquette seating and tables. An additional area down one side of the pub, named The Bottle and Jug Bar, is dominated by a dartboard and a fine collection of trophies on a mantelpiece. Also here was a few boxing photographs and I understand that the tenant is one Dixie Dean, a former boxer ( funny, I thought he was an Everton footballer ?) . Some racehorse pictures also decorate the walls.
The Prince Arthur is a Sheps pub which, on my recent visit, was serving Spitfire, Late Red and Master Brew. The Spitfire - £ 3.50p – was in good nick. The pub is listed in the 2011 CAMRA Good Beer Guide ( under Hoxton, post code N1 )
This is a fine unpretentious, welcoming pub – worth dropping in on when you’re in the area.
On 25th May 2011
- rating: 7
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Prince Arthur
This is a Shepherd Neame house, which had Spitfire, Master Brew, Kent’s Best and Late Red on during my visit. The Late Red was as good as always, but it’s never cheap - £3.40 a pint in here. It’s a traditional backstreet pub by the feel of it, based on my brief weekday lunchtime visit. It’s not a big pub; there are four tables by the front windows, complemented by some banquette seating and a few small stools, a few stools at a ledge on the left hand side and at the bar, and that’s about it as far as furnishings go. There’s a fireplace at the back with sporting trophies on the mantelpiece, probably relating to darts in view of the prominent darts area to the right of the fireplace. Wall decor amounts to some framed cigarette cards and assorted prints, and it’s carpeted throughout.
In fact the place has a very 70s feel about it. The traditional nature of the pub is confirmed by the glass case behind the bar containing sandwiches and rolls. This is a simple, clean, pub with no pretensions of grandeur and it is a joy to find this sort of pub within spitting distance of the centre of London. I would be very happy to pay a return visit.
On 16th November 2010
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about The Prince Arthur
The Prince Arthur is a small Shep Neame pub tucked away in Brunswick Place, North of Old Street. Takes a bit of finding but is worth the effort. When falling upon it the green and white exterior with light oak panelled windows, it stands out amongst the surrounding sterile housing blocks.
The Prince Arthur is a tidy but smallish back street boozer and there’s not a lot of floor space internally and a fair bit of it is given over to the dart board. But worth searching out for the Shep Beers and the couple I tried were in excellent nick.
On 2nd April 2010
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2110 recommendations about 1992 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
ALFRED COCHRANE left this review about The Prince Arthur
a very nice clean small pub,good shepherd and neame ales sandwiches available lunchtime,no pool table,but darts teams,and obviously doing something right as its had the same licencee for over 30 years
On 25th September 2008
- rating: 8
[User has posted 19 recommendations about 19 pubs]