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The Scottish Stores, Kings Cross, N1

2-4 Caledonian Road
N1
N1 9DU

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Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines


Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Scottish Stores

A fairly large group of us had arranged to meet up here for midday opening. However, at 12:10, the barmaid still hadn't bothered to open up. She had sat on a stool at the bar until midday and then decided to potter around for a while, despite clearly knowing that ourselves and another group were waiting to come in.

We had actually been there before midday, but after a 15-minute wait, we gave up and walked up to the road to the King Charles I which had apparently opened on time and was already full with customers who had been served efficiently.

After a pint in there, we returned to meet up with a late arrival. But to be honest, we'd have been better off staying in the King Charles I.

The Scottish Stores has shedded its seedy reputation as a strippers' pub and now has quite a traditional feel to it with a circular island bar surrounded by narrow areas of seating. A larger room adjoins the main bar and presumably serves as overflow seating. Toilets are downstairs.

3 cask ales were on. The house beer "Scottish Stores" is brewed by Wantsum. A second beer was Fortitude, also from Wantsum, with the third being Portobello Sauce on the Side. Craft beers seemed to be mainly from Siren. Quite a few of us tried the Christmas in Cali.

A generous CAMRA discount of £1 per pint is offered and the pub now finds itself in the latest Good Beer Guide. The delayed opening was slightly irritating. But I'll look on this as a minor indiscretion and err on the side of optimism with a 6/10, whilst still wishing we'd stayed in the King Charles I!

On 26th December 2023 - rating: 6
[User has posted 2442 recommendations about 2441 pubs]


Danny O'Revey left this review about The Scottish Stores

Extended bar, mainly craft based but some real ales, though not totally perfect. Has the feel of a work in progress

On 26th July 2023 - rating: 6
[User has posted 1456 recommendations about 1434 pubs]


Graham Coombs left this review about The Scottish Stores

Much improved pub which has been well restored with the original panelling and fittings augmented by matching replacements to give a welcoming and nicely lived-in pub feel. The enthusiastic bar manager is committed to cask ale and rotates beers from about 8 breweries, with this visit finding two each from Wantsum and By The Horns.

On 27th May 2023 - rating: 7
[User has posted 3322 recommendations about 3259 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Steve of N21 left this review about The Scottish Stores

Update: Popped in again the other evening and very pleased to find all four handpumps in operation. Hammerton N1 and N7 on two of them and Mayflower Session IPA and Harvard American Pale Ale from Southwark Brewing on the other two. Tried the N1 and N7 and they were both in excellent nick. Well worth doing as a double with the small King Charles I just up the road where the ale selection continues to improve as well. Happy days have returned to this end of the Cally Road.


Previous Review: 12th January 2022
In Kings Cross again this evening with some time to kill and decided to look this one up again.
Sadly my visit demonstrated the effect on cask offerings in London Town caused by Covid. Only one of the four hand pumps in operation and buy the printed beer and cider list that was on every table that seems a fairly permanent thing at the moment. Fortunately it was quite a good Hammerton N1 Pale Ale ( but then it doesn’t have far to travel) which saved me from having to choose one of the many UK or foreign craft beer options available. Still well worth visiting for the wooden interior but unfortunately currently not the good ale Emporium it was before the pandemic struck

On 1st November 2022 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 2094 recommendations about 1985 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Scottish Stores

First revisit for five years, and the heritage interior certainly remains noteworthy. The wood-panelling is lighter than usual for London, and none the worse for that. The various rooms and seating places around the central bar are a great survival, and the two side rooms (separately branded as The Stores Bar if you enter from the street) offer a good amount of extra space. Also has a compact first-floor roof terrace. Used to have eight handpumps, but now only has four as far as I could see, and with one disused, I found Hamerton N1, Panowow from By the Horns and Southwark's Routemaster Red (£5.30). Overall, still worth a stop if anywhere near Kings Cross.

On 12th October 2022 - rating: 7
[User has posted 8066 recommendations about 8066 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Will Larter left this review about The Scottish Stores

I came here several times in 2015/16/17 but always when with company or towards the end of a crawl, when I struggle to remember enough to write a review; I do remember on my last visit getting into a fairly drunken conversation at the bar as to why I was wearing a Luton Town scarf and hat but catching a train to Sheffield. As has been mentioned, the beer then was cheap and plentiful, and you would struggle to find elbow room at the bar or a seat at a table. There are now bar hangers again, so the first problem remains to some extent, but there was plenty of room once I had been served - in fact I had the whole of the room on the right to myself at 8pm. There's plenty of room for more beers on the bar, too - just two beers on whereas four would have been more usual five years ago. I remember getting Camra discount here before, bringing the price per pint below £4 as Quinno noted in his review on 2016, but I paid £2.70 for a half on this occasion. (Not a complaint, just an observation. And I never ask for a discount these days anyway.) My Riverbed Red from New River brewery was in very good condition. This is one of a number of decent pubs close to Kings Cross station (King Charles I, The Fellow and McGlynns would be others) that are well worth a visit either before catching a train or after stepping off one.

On 13th May 2022 - rating: 6
[User has posted 3699 recommendations about 3440 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Delboy 20 left this review about The Scottish Stores

What a transformation! Last time I was in here it was a seedy strip bar. Not a place for the faint hearted!
It is now a decent pub well described below with excellent service. I had a cracking pint of Hammerton N7 (in fact I had 2 it was that good!)
Pick of the pubs near Kings Cross for me.

On 18th March 2022 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 1651 recommendations about 1553 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Quinno _ left this review about The Scottish Stores

Four ales on this visit; 2x XT (4, 19), Doom Bar and another I forgot to note. Both my XT beers clocked in at £4.60 which felt a bit steep. Mixed quality on the drinking; XT19 weighed in at an NBSS 3, the XT4 tasted a bit stale (2). Seeing mentions elsewhere I get the feeling it’s a bit of cask lottery in here these days.

December 2016
Well described by PSM below so a brief overview from me - a pub reclaimed from being (by most accounts) a seedy strip joint and fortunately (miraculously?) the interior fittings survived pretty much unmolested. The small interior is divided up into three compartments, wrapping round a central bar. There’s plenty of wood panelling, inset glasswork and (a rarity!) plenty of hooks to hang your coat from. Its size does work against it in that it doesn’t need many people in to be full and a number of the patrons on my Sunday night visit seemed oblivious to the fact that using a spare seat as some sort of personal luggage storage is bad etiquette – something perhaps the pub’s management should tackle. It’s also got the irritation of bar blockers in front of the pumps so it can be a struggle to see what’s on. The selection on my visit was pretty good (five ales with a local slant plus Westons cider) and I decided to go with the house beer - Ripple Steam Bitter - which clocked in (after the CAMRA discount) at well-under £4, so I think this is somewhere where you need to be willing to ask prices before ordering, given some of the comments below (a wall-mounted blackboard might help…?). Quality of the pint I had was good. The atmosphere was relaxed and I enjoyed my stop here. Now I know it exists I may well be reappearing next time business takes me over that way. Well-worth a visit, but time it well to avoid the hordes. Rated 7.5

On 10th May 2019 - rating: 7
[User has posted 5050 recommendations about 5033 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Real Ale Ray left this review about The Scottish Stores

Thanks to John Gray for pointing this one out, on the London PG crawl earlier in the year. As some of you may know, I am a big fan of pub Interiors of Outstanding Historical Interest, so this one certainly ticked a few boxes. It was good to see a lot of the majority of the fixtures and fittings still intact, knowing this pubs illustrious past in the 1980s. Beer wise, we went for the Truman's Budburst and Enefeld London Pale Ale, a crafted beer brand from the Enfield Brewery. The only downside on our Sunday Eve visit was that the in house music was played too loud.

On 10th June 2017 - rating: 8
[User has posted 3378 recommendations about 3378 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


hondo . left this review about The Scottish Stores

Changed days since the flying scotsman now comes with accoutrements like daylight and real ales. 7 real ales and a varied keg selection.

On 29th September 2016 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 2883 recommendations about 2820 pubs]

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