Not already a member?
Join our community and
- Rate & review pubs
- Upload pictures
- Add events
JOIN for free NOW
Chat about:
Disappointment of the week with Real Ale Ray
on the Pub Forum
Detail Pages
The Oak & Pastor, Archway, N19
N19
N19 5QZ
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Oak & Pastor
This is a nice, mid-sized pub with a dark, cosy interior, just a short walk away from Archway station. The pub has a single room set-up with dark floorboards, similar coloured tables and chairs and muted lighting, which all combined together quite well to create a nice homely and intimate feel. Seating is a mix of high tables and stools to the left and regular tables and chairs through the centre and to the front right. Windows run along the front and left walls with white tongue and groove panels in between, whilst a dull, bare wall to the right is only partly remedied by the addition of a large plain mirror. The small servery stands to the right of the room and has a back-lit panelled counter with curved ends and an attractive bar back with some nice stained-glass top panels and some modest chandeliers hung above it. A huge TV screen at the end of the bar was showing a muted football match whilst Bob Dylan tunes played quietly in the background. Beyond the bar, the room is even darker, with candlelit tables under bare brick walls decorated with mirrors and a few bits of retro décor. The pub’s most notable feature is a small, enclosed booth for two on the left-hand wall, which looked a bit like a confessional to me. The pub feels small but has a surprising amount of space and seating, although some overspill is available in the form of a few picnic benches outside the front door.
There are three handpulls on the bar which were dispensing Sharps Doom Bar and Dark Star Hophead (£4.50), with the final pump unclipped. The Hophead was in pretty good nick, which was rather fortunate, as this was the last pint of cask ale I had prior to the enforced closure of pubs due to the coronavirus crisis. The barmaid here was very personable and explained that they have a minimum £5 spend for card payments, so I was pleased to find I had some cash on me for such an occasion.
I visited this place in the evening and found the muted lighting and dark décor gave the place a really nice, cosy vibe, enhanced by a bubbly atmosphere and some decent cask ale. The place falls short as a destination pub but would certainly be somewhere I’d be happy to spend some time when I’m next back up this way.
On 14th July 2020
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Oak & Pastor
A nice little pub, obviously much as Alan found it a few weeks before me,two beers were on, Doom Bar and Dark Star Hophead along with Rosie's Pig Cider, the interior was quite cosy and almost parlour-like, worth stopping for a pint.
On 3rd September 2017
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1871 recommendations about 1844 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Alan Winfield left this review about The Oak & Pastor
The Oak & Pastor is a decent looking pub that is situated towards the top end of Junction Road and a short walk to Archway tube station.
Once inside there is a smallish single oblong shaped room which runs to the rear,the bar is on the mid right side,the floor is bare boarded and the seating is tall tables and chairs on the left side and normal tables and chairs elsewhere.
There were two real ales on the bar and a real cider,i had a drink of Dark Star Hop Head,which was a very nice drink,the other real ale was Doom Bar.
There is a nice outside seating area to the front so you can watch traffic going up and down Junction Road.
I quite liked it in this pub,one i could settle in.
Pub visited 2/6/2017
On 6th August 2017
- rating: 8
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Oak & Pastor
This was originally The Junction Arms until 1964 when it became The Drum & Monkey, then The Oak & Pastor in 2011 which is odd as pastor is a U.S. and not a UK term, for which we use the word vicar. Either way, the name is probably derived from the installation of an old oak church pulpit.
Customers are very mixed, though some of the locals appear to have escaped from the Island of Dr. Moreau. Furniture is fairly conventional with some high chairs and stools to the windows. The floor is bare boarded, the walls have tongue and groove panelling to the lower half, the top half is bare brick. The bar runs down the right side and has a tiled apron. It also has stools so that bar hogs can block prospective customers. To the right side where once there may have been a fireplace are two very interesting back lit stained glass Art Deco sunburst panels. Muted music played over the stereo. Live sport was advertised but mercifully I didn't spot a single TV.
Ale on offer was Sharp's Atlantic and Hophead's Dark Star. This was a decent pint but at £1.90 a half was a bit steep. The barman was really quite surly and my change - notes and coins - was slapped down on the wet bar top.
This place is better than I'd expected and is certainly better than the up-its-own-arse St. John's Tavern across the road, but I'd prefer the 5-minute walk to the superior The Star up the road from here.
On 13th September 2015
- rating: 4
[User has posted 1983 recommendations about 1949 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about The Oak & Pastor
A wittily refurbished street corner boozer, now kitted out with church fittings, including a "confessional" (two stools, a table and a curtain placed by the now-defunct side door) and a "vestry" (a curtained stairway leading to the function room). Square tables fill most of the room, set out in a diamond pattern, and the back yard has been spruced up into quite a nice garden. All this effort to impress, but they were blasting out some dreadful music that may have been to somebody's taste (not mine) but was surely not much appreciated by the people who were trying to have a conversation. (I was OK, just having a half while I wrote my notes for this review.)
Beers on hand pump were St Austell Tribute, Black Sheep Bitter and Dark Star Hophead. I suppose Londoners are used to paying £3.50 a pint, but it still causes me a sharp intake of breath.
There is a truly weird mirror over the fireplace at the back of the room. As I wrote in my notes, "hmm...".
On 25th August 2011
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3733 recommendations about 3470 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about Drum & Monkey
This is the best pub in Archway, although that's not the greatest accolade that one could bestow!
The barman/gov was pleasant and was keeping everyone happy even though he was the only one behind the bar and it was reasonably busy. There is not a greatest selection on draught with Staropramen, Guinness and some standard lagers.
Plenty of plasma screens make the sport watching a good experience and the other punters happened to be choosing some of my favourite songs from the juke box, which is always a good sign.
I wouldn't make a special trip to drink here, but next time I'm in Archway this will be my pub of choice.
On 10th November 2008
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5229 recommendations about 5197 pubs]