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Detail Pages
The Unicorn, Kentish Town, NW1
NW1
NW1 9AA
Pub Type
Greene KingReviews (Current Rating Average: 4½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Unicorn
As John says, this is a big ugly pub in a rather desolate part of north-west London that's quite a trek from the nearest tube, Tufnell Park. This was originally the Brecknock Arms then later a branch of Pickled Newt. A first in here for us the other night and expectations weren't high but we needed the lav and it made for a decent halfway break from our walk to Holloway Road. We knew it was a pub for rockers having passed many times and seen bearded clients covered in leather, piercings and tattoos.
Surprisingly, given the lateness of the hour, the pub was empty - perhaps rockers go to bed early or maybe they haven't got up yet? The interior is much as described, with a striped '80s-looking carpet and a bare boarded bar apron, stalls supported by scaffold poles and some rustic wooden planking applied to the bar area and part bare brick walls. To the rear is a pool table and there's at least one games machine.
Service was swift as you'd expect in an empty pub and we had a pint each of some generic lager as there's no real beer.
I'm sure that this place fulfils a niche in a sadly dwindling market and hope it survives, but I don't envisage a return visit as for me, this pub does not go up to 11.
On 22nd September 2017
- rating: 3
[User has posted 1985 recommendations about 1951 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john gray left this review about The Unicorn
Large ugly pub that specialises in music thur-sunday.Gloomy interior with few customers on my visit.Keg only.Like the Unicorn on the pub sign I would need a spike pushed through my scull to revisit this pub.
On 17th September 2016
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1023 recommendations about 1009 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Unicorn
Large pub with u-shaped interior which is apparently owned by Greene King, not that you’d be able to tell. Carpeted, battleship grey walls and a bit of exposed brick. Advertised heavily outside as a live music venue, the special stage area is off on the left spur and it seems to specialize in heavy metal/doom/industrial, indeed there’s little in the way of décor in the pub bar some old Motörhead album covers. Fairly busy for a weekday afternoon with a number of local regulars who knew each other and sustained chatter. No ale, just a jumbo keg font of the usual national fizz. Guinness for me at a very reasonable £1.95 a half. Piped local radio for classic cheap ambience. As a pub it doesn't do much beyond the minimum really, but the locals like it and fair play for keeping a relatively niche area of live music going.
On 5th July 2016
- rating: 5
[User has posted 5089 recommendations about 5072 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about The Unicorn
I popped into this Greene King pub early on Saturday evening as it was starting to fill up with metal heads and a band was setting up on the stage in the back room, where the soon to be moved pool table was sitting. I enjoyed a decent pint of Guinness, but ale fans will be disappointed as keg IPA is the only ale choice.
I'm not really into heavy metal and I think that there are better pubs to go for a drink away from this area, so I won't be returning.
On 27th April 2009
- rating: 5
[User has posted 5249 recommendations about 5217 pubs]