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Detail Pages
The Blackstock, Finsbury Park, N4
N4
N4 2HY
Reviews (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 Blackstock
Dating from the mid-19th century, this was originally the Blackstock Park Hotel. As mentioned, this was an extremely basic boozer, home to old men who appeared to have lost the will to live.
Now the place has had a substantial makeover. The floor’s boarded with walls that are bare brick, though the rear is papered with black wallpaper featuring oversized roses; the ceiling is black. Although most furniture is fairly conventional, some tables look like they belong in a grand dining room. Décor comprises illuminated stained glass box lamps over the bar, then amateur oil portraits to give a stately home feel. This is augmented by grand gilded rococo mirrors and crystal and Victorian-style candle chandeliers, but the strangest of all shades I’ve ever seen are towards the fireplace, looking like three inflated condoms (see photo). Part of the rear is garden themed, with a trellis covered with fake ivy; the whole looks like it was designed by Vivian Westwood.
The island bar is grey field panelled, with a leaded glass divider by way of a bar back. Dominated by a phalanx of illuminated chromium Guinness harp founts, there’s real ale up to a point, with a pump sporting a reversed Doom clip, then another unused. I plumped for a half of Gamma Ray at £3.50, served by a perfunctory barmaid.
Despite the great improvements, this isn’t a great place but it’s a joy to behold compared to the Twelve Pins opposite; a better choice of real ale would get the score up.
On 4th February 2022
- rating: 4
[User has posted 1985 recommendations about 1951 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Blackstock
ORIGINAL REVIEW Dec 2014
A street corner boozer with a very plain and souless open plan interior and an island bar.A pool table had been pushed to one side to make room for the pre match crowd going to the Emirates,while the five flatscreens were all showing the Arsenal match which had kicked off at 5.30pm.There are fitted benches painted brown around the perimeter of the building and lots of room for vertical drinking.Children are allowed in but must be gone by 7pm.The barmaid was the very picture of indifference,and the punters just stared at the flatscreens.Only the usual keg suspects were on offer and £2 for a half of Stella felt like daylight robbery.My visit was due to a half hour delay following a cancelled train ,and on this form I can see no reason to darken their door again.
UPDATE
All change here ,but not necessarily for the better.A victim of the "doors close 30 seconds before departure time" policy having hared up the steps from the Victoria line,I had 30 minutes to kill and a need to compose myself so decided to revisit after hearing about the refurb.It's been totally stripped out with much exposed brickwork and now two hipster chandeliers.There is dark wooden floor and distinct lack of furniture,with a few bar stools around the island bar.The back is dark and houses a mixing desk so maybe later it becomes hectic ,while the huge pull down screen was unused ,so not sure if the sports pub of old has given way to a modern vibe.It was very quite at 5.30pm on a Saturday but I did spy two handpumps offering London Pride and Adnams Ghostship at a ludicrous £2.40 the half, and badly out of condition to boot.The muzak was loud and crap,so this is yet another poor pub in Finsbury Park.Try hard not to miss your train.
On 6th January 2018
- rating: 4
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Blackstock
They have clearly introduced real ale since the previous reviewer's visit, as they had on both London Pride and Adnam's Ghost Ship (£2.40 a half!) when I visited recently. There was no sign of any food on a midweek afternoon.
This is a bit of a barn of a pub. It's bare-boarded like most places these days; ceilings and walls are mainly painted black, but with some fairly ugly exposed brickwork. On the plus side, some of the furnishings were quite elegant including good quality dining room tables and high-backed dining chairs. There were no tall tables/tall stools nor sofas - in fact there was a lot of open space with no furniture.
Overall I though this pub was fairly shabby around the edges, although it's probably improved since BF graced the pub with his presence. My half of Ghost Ship was in good shape though - but at a steep price. I can see this pub might be very popular later in the day, but it didn't come over as a relaxing place to enjoy a quiet pint.
On 12th July 2017
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
hondo . left this review about The Blackstock
Very rough n ready corner pub that did its job and supplied me with alcohol. A central island bar serves a standard draught selection. The pub has a pool table.
On 9th March 2012
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2883 recommendations about 2820 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about The Blackstock
This is a large pub with an island bar, booth seating around the exterior walls and a pool table at the rear. There is also a projector screen and some plasma screens dotted about for showing Sky Sports and the Arsenal allegiance is plain for all to see, which isn’t very surprising in Finsbury Park. It’s a fairly basic boozer that has seen better days and I found the clientele to be unfriendly bordering on hostile. One thing of note that I did spot were that some of the barstools were actually old milk churns that had been padded for seating.
This is one of the poorer pubs in the area and I see no reason to return.
On 17th March 2010
- rating: 4
[User has posted 5249 recommendations about 5217 pubs]