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Detail Pages
The Eagle, Old Street, N1
N1
N1 7LB
Pub Type
Castle (Mitchells & Butlers)Reviews (Current Rating Average: 4½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Eagle
An interesting looking pub from the outside, with a traditional interior, with a horseshoe shaped room wrapped around the original mahogany bar. A renaissance fireplace on the right hand side of the bar area and black steel columns, made up for the limited choice of beer. There were five handpumps on the bar with three in use, serving Doombar, St Austell and Purity. I had a quick half of Purity UBU, was about the best bet.
On 15th August 2016
- rating: 5
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Eagle
Due to its association with the nursery rhyme emblazoned on the façade, this pub can probably lay claim to being the World's Most Famous Pub (that and The Angel at the top of City Road, closed 1921, which gives its name to the area and square on the UK Monopoly board). Well described below, our one visit was made about 6 years ago and I would say that the current pub is an improvement, a little more traditional than before with a fine Victorian interior displaying some attractive glazed tiles and old school furniture. No TVs were in evidence - a good thing - and the crowd was mixed, though the music was a little loud.
Service was OK and ales on were: Purity's UBU, Koma's Off The Wall, an empty clip and St. Austell's Proper Job at a pricey £2.15 a half, though good.
This isn't a great pub, though I would suggest that it's better than the reviews below would have you believe - as mentioned, an improvement on our last visit. This is really one to experience for the fame factor, but otherwise I wouldn't go out of my way to come here again - makes for a useful thirst quencher on the way to The Wenlock.
On 21st April 2016
- rating: 4
[User has posted 1985 recommendations about 1951 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Eagle
I have walked past this pub many times in the past going to and from the Wenlock Arms, so this time decided to give it a go. A large opened out pub fairly busy on a Saturday night,England v Germany was on a TV screen until it went haywire and got turned off.Five pumps with four on,Ilkley Crossroads, Purity Ubu, Skinners
Lushingtons and unfortunately Doom Bar,The Skinners beer was in good nick.It was better here than expected.
On 27th March 2016
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1872 recommendations about 1845 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john gray left this review about The Eagle
Very busy pub with lots of seating but nowhere to stand and rest your drink apart from the bar.4 beers on handpump and looks like Nicholsons range of beers.Superb pint of Orkney -dark island.Quite a messy looking pub.
On 4th January 2014
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Eagle
Five ales on but the lone barmaid seemed to be more intent on prioritizing other tasks over taking my money at bar so I gave up and left. Ale list looked very similar to Nicholsons - is this an M&B outlet? Shame I didn’t get to try the Summer Lightening. Interior very large and opened-out with a faux-rustic décor.
On 30th June 2013
- rating: 3
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Eagle
Possibly the only pub with a large exterior sign quoting from a nursery rhyme? Anyway, if you go at a quiet time it can be a decent-enough gastro-pub (if you like that kind of thing). However, visit during the post-office rush at your peril as it is heaving and very noisy. 'U'-shaped bar with faux rustic decor and a mix of seating. Five handpumps, but usually only three or so on at any one time - Pride, Doom Bar and a festive Royal Union beer (£3.35) on my recent visit.
On 22nd April 2011
- rating: 6
[User has posted 8117 recommendations about 8117 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Eagle
This is another classic Victorian pub, although not as extravagantly designed as the earlier build of the Eagle that graced this site. There’s a few vestiges of its Victorian heritage inside – some tiling in the “back” entrance in Shepherdess Walk, and the cast iron pillars, which the owners of pubs, no doubt wisely for structural reasons, tend to leave in place. The horseshoe bar is in the middle of the room; the floor’s lacquered and bare-boarded; there are big solid wood tables accompanied by some banquette seating and normal chairs; plus a couple of sofas at the back. This is of course the typical complement of a madeover gastro type pub. They do food of course, but it’s not really pub grub – e.g. a “West country beefburger, mature cheddar, smoked bacon with coleslaw and chips” is £9. The menus (the sandwich menu is separate from the main menu) are on sheets of paper on the tables. They had four ales on during my visit – Sharp’s Doom Bar and Cornish Coaster, Black Sheep Bitter, and Deuchars IPA – with a fifth pump unclipped.
An unusual feature is the shelf at the back on the right bearing assorted old boys’ annuals. I saw The Lion, and several others that I recall from my youth, but incredibly there was no Eagle annual on display. There was also a large (circa 6’ x 4’) photograph of an eagle in flight as the centrepiece on the black painted back wall, which was otherwise unadorned. It gets very noisy in here when it’s busy, as these high-ceilinged uncarpeted places always do, not helped in here by the unnecessarily loud pop music being played. It’s not really my type of place, but it is light and airy, and if the food is as good as the prices suggest (I didn’t eat here) then it might be somewhere to enjoy a decent meal sometime when it’s a bit quieter.
On 17th November 2010
- rating: 5
[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 Eagle
Large corner Victorian boozer made famous in the children’s Nursery rhyme as mentioned below. Haven’t been in here for many years but decided to venture in when back around Old Street the other evening as it does look quite inviting on a dark night with the large outside lanterns glowing and the copious fairy lights hanging from the ceiling inside, and I seem to recall it being in the recent GBG’s.
Appears I had a better experience than the reviewers below, but then it wasn’t too busy with the after work crowd during my visit, and no problems getting served
Of the hand pumps on the bar, three were dispensing beer and these were Pride, Black Sheep and Deuchars IPA., and the IPA was an OK pint. I do remember this place having a pleasant ivy-covered garden outback but didn’t check it out on this occasion.
On 3rd November 2010
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2111 recommendations about 1992 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Eagle
Up and down the City Road
In and out The Eagle
That's the way the money goes
Pop! goes the weasel
As I staggered back from The Wenlock ,I noticed this nursery rhyme emblazoned high on one wall,but reading the reviews this pub may be more nursery crime.With apologies to P Gabriel.
On 31st August 2010
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2728 recommendations about 2728 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about The Eagle
This is a good sized U-shaped pub that I thought would be very pleasant as I approached, but I was wrong. It is dark and badly decorated and the barmaid that served me was nothing less than rude. There was no escape from the smell of food from the kitchen and only Pride was available out of the four ales shown. My Guinness was not the best and I regretted handing over any money.
I cannot recommend this pub to others.
On 2nd September 2009
- rating: 3
[User has posted 5254 recommendations about 5222 pubs]