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Detail Pages
The Old Bull & Bush, NW3
NW3
NW3 7HE
Pub Type
Premium Country Pubs (Mitchells & Butlers)Reviews (Current Rating Average: 3 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Old Bull & Bush
Formerly the Bull & Bush, the pub's current name is taken from the early Edwardian Florrie Forde music hall hit 'Down at the old Bull and Bush'.
I've only been here a handful of times since the late 1980s, the last time being about five years ago. This former coaching inn and sister pub to the Freemasons Arms down the road, dates from 1721 but was rebuilt probably in the 1920s/30s. It's quite a large roadhouse pub, the dining room with its studded black or ivory-coloured leatherette chairs is on the left as you enter. The main body of the pub doesn't seem to retain any original features and looks rather like a wine bar attached to a hotel or country club, papered with wallpaper adorned with cow motifs. The ceiling features large swivel spot lamps, the tables are metal topped with candles in red glass holders. Chairs are either cloth or leatherette drum - leatherette sofas too - and sink so much when you sit down, that your chin is pretty much level with the table's top which isn't at all comfortable; to the right there's a raised area. The floor is bare boarded with what appears to be limestone tiling around the bar's perimeter; mood music played on the stereo. It's a bit 1980s.
The bar is fairly long with a selection of premium lagers. Three pumps, one blank another dispensing Fuller's London Pride with the clip reversed. All that remained was the ubiquitous Sharp's Doom Bar which came in at £3.50. A remarkably cheap price for the area, it was however a bit lifeless.
Tricky to reach, Hampstead or Golders Green tubes are equidistant. Thereafter it's a bus ride or a 30-minute walk each way. This pub may suffice for the wealthy locals, not least because there's absolutely nothing else in the immediate area. It is though completely soulless and if I lived locally I'd make the trip into Hampstead rather than drink here.
On 9th May 2015
- rating: 2
[User has posted 1982 recommendations about 1949 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about The Old Bull & Bush
The Landlord was off at 12:30 on Saturday afternoon, but the Adnams was good enough and there was a large selection of premium lagers. The barman asked me if I wanted ice in my pint, I declined the offer – I just wish that he had not left room in my pint for some ice. This place is now very gastro and it may even be verging on the restaurant side.
It is many a year since I was last in here and I didn't really like it very much then, so now I'm looking forward to another few years of no Bull and Bush.
On 18th May 2009
- rating: 4
[User has posted 5228 recommendations about 5196 pubs]