You made my day, again!!! I had the pleasure of visiting the Prince Edward last year and, yeah, it’s most certainly a locals pub. Ended up sharing a table with a couple fellow geezers and a great conversation about WWII. Keep up the great work…thanks!!!
£4.60 for a pint of Guinness in the Prince Edward is amazing value for London. Not surprised the quality was good . A lot of older Irish still about in North London so they sell a lot of it.
Yes I definitely got that sense of a bit of an Irish community around there. Really delighted to get a pint for under a fiver in London - especially when it's actually good!
Another great video. Really good to see the old cinemas preserved. In my youth in the 70s I worked in many beautiful old art deco super cinemas which were then bingo halls. Sadly most are gone with nothing worthwhile taking the huge space that they occupied. One of the smaller ones has happily reverted to a cinema again.
Thanks Liam! Yes I suppose in a way their size and magnificence is part of their downfall - often quite hard to find a new use for spaces like that once they're no longer a viable business as a cinema.
@@TweedyPubs Yes most were so large that they covered at least one old well. I saw many of these fitted with sump pumps to prevent flooding. The old Regal in Godalming (now demolished) had a well or spring that was visited by frogs through some subterranean passageway. The Ritz in Birkenhead was so large it had three wells and an underground river which you could access by a metal ladder.
Hi Tweedy. A most interesting collection of pubs, not least from an architectural point of view. If I lived in Holloway I would be pleased to have them on my door step. Shame though about the lack of real ale in a few of them. Thank heavens for Guinness as a standby. 👏👏👍😀🍺
Thanks Andrew! Yes it does seem this area is a bit of a desert for real ale (if I'm honest even in the 2 pubs which had hand pumps, I got an overall sense it was a bit lacklustre and neither of those Timothy Taylord Landlords were quite tip-top)... but horses for courses, when in Rome, and all that. I don't mind Guinness now and again, and at least one of those pints of the black stuff was a stellar example of the breed.
@@TweedyPubs I find it difficult now to recall how difficult it was to find real ale in the 70’s and how blessed we are today. So to see that there are still pubby pubs out there without real ale is quite an eye opener for me. I hope there is not an underlying trend. 🥴
@dolinskiatcarpathian I know what you mean - it's interesting how some places sort of fall between the cracks on that front... I tend to assume that a pub like the Prince Edward (wet led / historic interior / caters to an older clientele) would be pretty much guaranteed to serve real ale... but it seems there are some surprisingly beautiful urban pubs like this where that was just never really the case. Of course "Watney's Red Barrel" was the original scourge against which CAMRA was fighting, so perhaps it is fitting that the Prince Edward is one last hold out, with all that Watney's branding all over the place. I loved it just the way it was and the more I think about it, the more I think shoehorning in some hand pumps now might actually spoil the authenticity of it!
@@andrewdolinskiatcarpathian I worked in pubs as a barman in 1971/72 there was still bitter and mild kept on the handpumps as staples alongside the many variants of keg bitter and mild. A few years later it was disappearing. Amazingly, Whitbreads which had done so much to kill real ale with their Whitbread Tankard, relented and helped kick start the real ale revival in the 80s with Castle Eden, a lovely creamy bitter. The fact that Whitbread had done this, lent strength to the campaign.
@@liamkatt6434 Thank you for your interesting recollections. The ubiquitous hand pumps with either bitter or mild are indeed my earliest recollections. You never walked into a pub and asked for a pint by name. All pubs in my area of West London were tied and it was a case of buying a round of “five pints of bitter”. It meant you went on pub crawls to go from tied house to tied house in search of a different taste of beer, Truman, Fullers, Ind Coope, Bass, Whitbread and Courage. Obviously Watney was shunned. 😂
Love this! I used to live in Highbury and spent a lot of time in Holloway--I remember the old Jones Brothers department store and, of course, the Slug and Lettuce where they brewed their own Dogbolter.
My daughter was born at the Whittington Hospital at the end of Holloway Road and knowing the good pubs in the area was important! Prince Edward being one of them. Keep up the good work!@@TweedyPubs
A real mid-twentieth century vibe to this one - very nostalgic. I was transported back to the 60s by The Prince Edward with its Watneys paraphernalia. I suspect some of the customers might have known it then too. One imagines Mr. Enkel would be happy to see that his name lives on, less though about the removal of his street. Well spotted with that coaching inn arch at The Half Moon. How the world around it has changed since those days. Daft new name for the pub and already feels a bit 20 years ago. I don’t know why, but old cinemas like The Coronet make me think rainy Saturday mornings. Interesting that it’s kept the last name of the cinema, which didn’t appear to have lasted that long. Excellent research as usual. Even recipes for Victorian cheesecakes!
Thank you! Yes I think my theory that this not-very-touristy corner of London might be harbouring some unspoilt gems was vindicated by the Prince Edward there, and I found it wonderfully nostalgic too. It's hard to imagine with all the commercial pressures that a more centrally located pub would be able to retain an interior like that. Although I suppose it did slightly remind me of the Coach and Horses in Soho with some of that 1960s brewery signage. I found the vanity of Mr Enkel oddly hilarious and I don't think I've ever encountered a case before where a landowner builds a brand new pub and just names it after themselves! Of course it's fine if someone else names a pub after an individual of some note (or notoriety), and sometimes pubs are informally referred to by the name of the landlord if they're a bit of a character (thinking again of the Coach and Horses in Soho, sometimes colloquially referred to as "Norman's"). All of that said, were I ever in the position of building a pub the temptation to call it the "Tweedy Arms" would be quite high! I do think there's something quite special about coaching inns, and finding one "buried" beneath that obviously very young-person-focused pub was very satisfying. The cheesecake discovery also very satisfying - I do like to keep things eclectic here on Tweedy Pubs!
Brilliant group of pubs, thank you. Adore the traditional Central London pubs of course, I'll remain a purest forever. But also enjoy those more local, inextricably unique to their surroundings, where you might feel unwelcome initially but quickly learn you are very much accepted because you've sought them out specifically.
I'm with you Kevin, I think there are great pubs to be found at both ends of the spectrum, from the showy pubs of central London (where, on the downside, you'll probably never see the same face twice) to these kind of community boozers out in the boroughs.
Interesting video Tweedy. I know the feeling when you walk into a pub with a bunch of geezers haha. You may need to start traveling south if the river. Greenwich / Blackheath. Dulwich, Beckenham / Bromley etc. So many areas to explore.
I agree I do need to cover a bit more south of the river. I have at least done a Greenwich video: ruclips.net/video/nvTVdyaCvcY/видео.html ...although perhaps not my finest hour - I had a friend with me who made some suggestions and things went a bit awry in the middle. I also very briefly went to Bromley for this Christmas special at the end of last year (warning contains terrible singing): ruclips.net/video/z0dQCckdoj8/видео.html
Glad you liked that bit Donald! I was considering trying to sneak in and get some footage of the interior as that's really impressive but thought that might be going a bit too far off the pub theme! I do feel like they could maybe make a bit more use of the space - there's that mezzanine layer above the foyer which is crying out for a bar!
I take it back--it was the Flounder and Firkin in the Holloway Road--the Slug was in Upper Street. Dogbolter will do that to you....Still available, I believe at the Fox and Firkin in Lewisham.
The Coronet is indeed an art deco gem - and I look forward to the time when the Odeon up the road is also converted to a pub! 😂 I literally grew up with real ale (my parents ran a pub when I was a kid, and they were some of the very early members of CAMRA), so it's in my blood and all that... but that said, I feel more at home in an old fashioned pub like the Prince Edward (even if it only serves keg beers) than I would in a trendy modern "pub" which has hand pumps, but they're all given over to those American style grapefruit flavoured IPAs. Probably a bit controversial I know!
Fantastic thanks Tweedy! Really enjoy your weekly dose of pubmania! 😁 you know i could be tempted to visit The Owl & Hitchhiker just for the reason of the very pretty barmaid! 😂
She was a real credit to the establishment! I'd quite understand a bit of eye rolling etc from a twenty-something having to deal with a weird middle aged man in tweed coming into the pub taking photos of all the fixtures and fittings (I did ask first if that was ok!) but she just smiled politely and let me get on with it.
@@TweedyPubs Excellent, I guess thats very rare for her to see someone taking pictures of the pub and not of people, makes a refreshing change lol, well I suppose if the pub doesnt quite make the grade at least there is something else more pleasant on the eye 😁
Another excellent review. Ive been to Holloway a few times but never stopped in one of its pubs. Cant remember why. Im loving the interesting history. On locals pubs, i agree that they are not always the most welcoming to strangers but they can be a vital part of the local community which is a great British tradition I hope we never lose. Cheers Tweedy.
I enjoyed this. The Half Moon was my local and it was a tough pub in the day. Fellas who were barred from the Archway would go in. I saw Grease in the Coronet and had pints in there when Witherspoon made it a pub. I was in the Enkel recently after the Arsenal game and was packed out into the street. Lots of the other pubs are gone but nice to see some survive
Hi john, a really great crawl around Holloway and then to boot you get all your followers coming up with some great comments too. I guess it must be the same all over the UK old traditional pubs being converted into something else and then coming all the way back to there origins according to fashion. Same with cinemas, the Coronet could have been in any high street, fantastic facade. Its obvious really but Holloway must have been that hence the name!! I did chuckle seeing the Watney logo all over the Prince Edward, I cant remember the last time I saw that. If you go to Portsmouth you will see Brickwoods tiled into a lot of old (or ex) pubs. They were the main brewer there before being taken over by Whitbreads. Great video, well done. All the best!!
Mr Tweedy,you even researched the cheesecake (unbelievable 😅).I was up that way Saturday and had a couple of those guinness' in the prince Edward..Great video..
Here was me thinking I had unearthed a hidden gem nobody would have heard of and now you're the second person who has said in the comments you've been there! I hope your pints of Guinness were as good as mine!
Always a pleasant and welcome surprise to see the latest Tweedy sojourn on Thursday just in time for the weekend. This one from an area I'm not familiar with but will make a mental note for a future visit, hopefully this autumn. Perhaps a viewer meetup could be sorted for those who would consider it a right cracking experience to tag along with Tweedy.
Thanks Al! As I mentioned in the video a couple of these pubs are bordering on the sort of place where you walk through the saloon doors, the piano player stops, and everyone turns around to look at you! ...but I was on my best behaviour and the staff / locals I spoke to were actually all very pleasant. So maybe it was all in my head?
Good to see you out and about Mr Tweed, as a suggestion try Smithfield's, some very interesting hostelry's there. including a very nice arts and crafts pub.
Thank you for the video though...aprreciate your efforts...I live other side of the world now which makes these sort of videos more important than ever....loving your channel mate....but pleaes go fine The Swimmer on Hercules Streeet, you'll proper love it...opens after 5pm on a weekday...miday on weekend.
Good stuff. Sent me down the rabbit hole of the Great Northern Hospital which was on the old map opposite one of the pubs and which I’d never heard of or seen. Demolished for housing - which is fair enough as we need to live somewhere (although still a wee bit sad that it’s gone)
Yes I noticed that on the map too! I did get the sense Holloway is a bit of an unloved corner of London where it's perhaps a bit too easy to get away with knocking some great edifice down and build something else... However Holloway's saving grace may be that (to date) many developers just aren't interested in this part of town!
Thanks Seán! I recorded some of the talking bits for the Prince Edward and the Enkel Arms in a local park, while I was waiting for the last pub to open - so yes there definitely could have been passing dogs! I don't recall the particular breed though.
Did the Coronet have any real ale? And what were their prices? I visited the Tollgate , another former Wetherspoons, near Turnpike Lane station last year. They had real ale but it was, sadly, undrinkable. They tried to make their beers cheaper than other pubs, £3.99, but they don’t know how to look after and serve ale at all. In general, it felt as though none of the staff has worked in a pub before and they were figuring it out as they went along.
There's a shot of the lineup on the bar at 5:40 and a half of Timothy Taylor's Landlord was £2.50, so presumably £5 a pint. I found typically when that's in a lineup it's one of the more expensive ales. This was actually my first time in the Coronet, so I'm not sure what the prices were like when Wetherspoons were running it. I'd guess they have gone up a bit since then but £5 for a pint (of a beer I'd actually want to drink) is still not bad for London.
@@TweedyPubs I used to drink in there before it was demolished and rebuilt as the steam ship if I remember correctly and the Scottish singer, Barbara Dickson used to drink with us in there , she was lovely
I didn’t particularly like your vids at first but fair play your perseverance is playing off, do enjoy anything about London pubs, maybe do one about pubs around the Albert Hall, ones with a particular link maybe, going there for a gig on march 26th, love it there, one of the last bastions of Great Britain from yonder. Keep up the hard work fella 👍👍
I completely understand what you mean about not really liking this channel to begin with. I think it's a good thing on RUclips that normally for any given topic there are lots of different people covering it, they'll all bring their own style / personality / focus / knowledge etc. We all enjoy pubs in a slightly different way and it stands to reason that some people will watch my videos and not really get on with the approach I take. That said, I'm surprised there aren't more RUclips channels about historic pubs as there's clearly an interest in the subject: this channel is a lot more popular than I expected it to be! Hopefully if nothing else my videos might persuade other people to do something similar and we'll get a better range of personalities covering the subject.
@@TweedyPubs I thought it was before Reading but apparently it was after. The Home Secretary apparently feared unrest outside of Reading Prison on the day of Oscar's release and made special arrangements for him to be taken to Holloway to spend his last night of imprisonment. He walked to freedom through the gates of Holloway prison.
I did talk to a couple of the locals and they actually were pretty friendly. You really could forgive them for not being: "Here I am trying to have a quiet pint and this idiot in a tweed suit starts banging on about Victorian partitions!"
how did you not find The Swimmer at The Grafton Arms....opposite The Hercules.....literally across frd from Odeon.....mate....not sure how you find the pubs....shame
I was mostly relying on CAMRA's list of historic pub interiors for this trip, plus the Coronet was one I already had on my radar from when I was planning that Wetherspoons video. The Grafton isn't on CAMRA's pub heritage list, sounds like maybe they should consider it though! I'll know for next time I'm in the area!
I did take a quick look at it on Google Maps but I thought from the photos it had perhaps gone a bit gastro...? Maybe I judged it unfairly? I'm not very familiar with the Holloway area so I was being heavily guided by CAMRA's pub heritage site on this one, and pretty much went to all three pubs they had listed around here (plus the Coronet which had been on my mind since that Wetherspoons video, but I didn't include it there because it had already been sold on by then).
@@TweedyPubs As almost all pubs, it serves food to survive, but it is a friendly mid-Victorian local. The inside is quite original to my eye, but opened up to a single bar. "Morning Advertiser 05 November 1863 : The Grafton Arms, Grafton road, Seven Sisters road, Holloway has been built within the past few months, and from its position must inevitably reap the entire benefit of the enormous neighbourhood by which it is surrounded, as no other Licensed House will be permitted upon the estate. The premises, among other advantages, possess those of a coachhouse and stabling. The Lease has about ninety years unexpired, at a ground rent of £30."
@@TweedyPubs next time you're in the vicinity of Wendover: The White Swan on Wendover High Street - just an *ordinary* pub. Where "ordinary pub" is now such a rare thing. Generally a nice selection of pumps (with guests) and regular kegular. Used to be Fullers (but, well you know...) now owned by another brewery, but I gather that the landlord has negotiated the right to put what he wants on the pumps, which is a very good thing. Their Guinness is *also* good. Tell them "Balloon Chris and Barry sent me" (and you'll likely be barred instantly!)
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You made my day, again!!! I had the pleasure of visiting the Prince Edward last year and, yeah, it’s most certainly a locals pub. Ended up sharing a table with a couple fellow geezers and a great conversation about WWII. Keep up the great work…thanks!!!
Very happy to hear that Ed! I did think the Prince Edward had a lot going for it. Easily my favourite pub of this bunch.
Saw you yesterday near the prison. Nearly called out. Well done Tweedy…!
Oh wow - what are the chances? Yes I was trying to peer through the fence to see if I could get a glimpse of the redevelopment. As you do.
£4.60 for a pint of Guinness in the Prince Edward is amazing value for London.
Not surprised the quality was good . A lot of older Irish still about in North London so they sell a lot of it.
Yes I definitely got that sense of a bit of an Irish community around there. Really delighted to get a pint for under a fiver in London - especially when it's actually good!
Thoroughly enjoyable, nice to see some "local" pubs for a change, thank you and please keep up the good work.
Another great video. Really good to see the old cinemas preserved. In my youth in the 70s I worked in many beautiful old art deco super cinemas which were then bingo halls. Sadly most are gone with nothing worthwhile taking the huge space that they occupied. One of the smaller ones has happily reverted to a cinema again.
Thanks Liam! Yes I suppose in a way their size and magnificence is part of their downfall - often quite hard to find a new use for spaces like that once they're no longer a viable business as a cinema.
@@TweedyPubs Yes most were so large that they covered at least one old well. I saw many of these fitted with sump pumps to prevent flooding. The old Regal in Godalming (now demolished) had a well or spring that was visited by frogs through some subterranean passageway. The Ritz in Birkenhead was so large it had three wells and an underground river which you could access by a metal ladder.
Hi Tweedy. A most interesting collection of pubs, not least from an architectural point of view. If I lived in Holloway I would be pleased to have them on my door step. Shame though about the lack of real ale in a few of them. Thank heavens for Guinness as a standby. 👏👏👍😀🍺
Thanks Andrew! Yes it does seem this area is a bit of a desert for real ale (if I'm honest even in the 2 pubs which had hand pumps, I got an overall sense it was a bit lacklustre and neither of those Timothy Taylord Landlords were quite tip-top)... but horses for courses, when in Rome, and all that. I don't mind Guinness now and again, and at least one of those pints of the black stuff was a stellar example of the breed.
@@TweedyPubs I find it difficult now to recall how difficult it was to find real ale in the 70’s and how blessed we are today. So to see that there are still pubby pubs out there without real ale is quite an eye opener for me. I hope there is not an underlying trend. 🥴
@dolinskiatcarpathian I know what you mean - it's interesting how some places sort of fall between the cracks on that front... I tend to assume that a pub like the Prince Edward (wet led / historic interior / caters to an older clientele) would be pretty much guaranteed to serve real ale... but it seems there are some surprisingly beautiful urban pubs like this where that was just never really the case.
Of course "Watney's Red Barrel" was the original scourge against which CAMRA was fighting, so perhaps it is fitting that the Prince Edward is one last hold out, with all that Watney's branding all over the place. I loved it just the way it was and the more I think about it, the more I think shoehorning in some hand pumps now might actually spoil the authenticity of it!
@@andrewdolinskiatcarpathian I worked in pubs as a barman in 1971/72 there was still bitter and mild kept on the handpumps as staples alongside the many variants of keg bitter and mild. A few years later it was disappearing. Amazingly, Whitbreads which had done so much to kill real ale with their Whitbread Tankard, relented and helped kick start the real ale revival in the 80s with Castle Eden, a lovely creamy bitter. The fact that Whitbread had done this, lent strength to the campaign.
@@liamkatt6434 Thank you for your interesting recollections. The ubiquitous hand pumps with either bitter or mild are indeed my earliest recollections. You never walked into a pub and asked for a pint by name. All pubs in my area of West London were tied and it was a case of buying a round of “five pints of bitter”. It meant you went on pub crawls to go from tied house to tied house in search of a different taste of beer, Truman, Fullers, Ind Coope, Bass, Whitbread and Courage. Obviously Watney was shunned. 😂
Holloway is awesome!!!! great pubs....proper pubs.
It's not an area I've ever spent much time in before, and I was pleasantly surprised!
Love this! I used to live in Highbury and spent a lot of time in Holloway--I remember the old Jones Brothers department store and, of course, the Slug and Lettuce where they brewed their own Dogbolter.
Thank you! It's not a part of town I know very well but I found it interesting learning about the history and the Prince Edward was a bit of a gem!
My daughter was born at the Whittington Hospital at the end of Holloway Road and knowing the good pubs in the area was important! Prince Edward being one of them. Keep up the good work!@@TweedyPubs
Dogbolter.... Wasn't that a firkin ales brew..?
A real mid-twentieth century vibe to this one - very nostalgic. I was transported back to the 60s by The Prince Edward with its Watneys paraphernalia. I suspect some of the customers might have known it then too.
One imagines Mr. Enkel would be happy to see that his name lives on, less though about the removal of his street.
Well spotted with that coaching inn arch at The Half Moon. How the world around it has changed since those days. Daft new name for the pub and already feels a bit 20 years ago.
I don’t know why, but old cinemas like The Coronet make me think rainy Saturday mornings. Interesting that it’s kept the last name of the cinema, which didn’t appear to have lasted that long.
Excellent research as usual. Even recipes for Victorian cheesecakes!
Thank you! Yes I think my theory that this not-very-touristy corner of London might be harbouring some unspoilt gems was vindicated by the Prince Edward there, and I found it wonderfully nostalgic too. It's hard to imagine with all the commercial pressures that a more centrally located pub would be able to retain an interior like that. Although I suppose it did slightly remind me of the Coach and Horses in Soho with some of that 1960s brewery signage.
I found the vanity of Mr Enkel oddly hilarious and I don't think I've ever encountered a case before where a landowner builds a brand new pub and just names it after themselves! Of course it's fine if someone else names a pub after an individual of some note (or notoriety), and sometimes pubs are informally referred to by the name of the landlord if they're a bit of a character (thinking again of the Coach and Horses in Soho, sometimes colloquially referred to as "Norman's").
All of that said, were I ever in the position of building a pub the temptation to call it the "Tweedy Arms" would be quite high!
I do think there's something quite special about coaching inns, and finding one "buried" beneath that obviously very young-person-focused pub was very satisfying.
The cheesecake discovery also very satisfying - I do like to keep things eclectic here on Tweedy Pubs!
Just recently discovered your channel. Balm for the soul, Tweedy.
Brilliant episode, quite like the weird last pub. Looks like a fun place for a beer
I was on the fence until I saw the Sinclair C5!
Brilliant group of pubs, thank you. Adore the traditional Central London pubs of course, I'll remain a purest forever. But also enjoy those more local, inextricably unique to their surroundings, where you might feel unwelcome initially but quickly learn you are very much accepted because you've sought them out specifically.
I'm with you Kevin, I think there are great pubs to be found at both ends of the spectrum, from the showy pubs of central London (where, on the downside, you'll probably never see the same face twice) to these kind of community boozers out in the boroughs.
Good news that they are keeping The Coronet (for now). Fears that they were going turn it in to flats! Great vids. Thanks for posting.
Yes it's reassuring. It'll be interesting to see how how that works as an ex-Wetherspoons.
Interesting video Tweedy. I know the feeling when you walk into a pub with a bunch of geezers haha. You may need to start traveling south if the river. Greenwich / Blackheath. Dulwich, Beckenham / Bromley etc. So many areas to explore.
I agree I do need to cover a bit more south of the river. I have at least done a Greenwich video: ruclips.net/video/nvTVdyaCvcY/видео.html
...although perhaps not my finest hour - I had a friend with me who made some suggestions and things went a bit awry in the middle.
I also very briefly went to Bromley for this Christmas special at the end of last year (warning contains terrible singing): ruclips.net/video/z0dQCckdoj8/видео.html
Nice of you to include the history of the Odeon as well.
Glad you liked that bit Donald! I was considering trying to sneak in and get some footage of the interior as that's really impressive but thought that might be going a bit too far off the pub theme! I do feel like they could maybe make a bit more use of the space - there's that mezzanine layer above the foyer which is crying out for a bar!
I take it back--it was the Flounder and Firkin in the Holloway Road--the Slug was in Upper Street. Dogbolter will do that to you....Still available, I believe at the Fox and Firkin in Lewisham.
Thanks Eric! I have a friend in Lewisham, I'll have to take a look next time I'm down that way.
Thanks for showing us the cornet as i am a huge art deco fan shame about the lack of ales on this crawl Thanks and🍻
The Coronet is indeed an art deco gem - and I look forward to the time when the Odeon up the road is also converted to a pub! 😂
I literally grew up with real ale (my parents ran a pub when I was a kid, and they were some of the very early members of CAMRA), so it's in my blood and all that... but that said, I feel more at home in an old fashioned pub like the Prince Edward (even if it only serves keg beers) than I would in a trendy modern "pub" which has hand pumps, but they're all given over to those American style grapefruit flavoured IPAs. Probably a bit controversial I know!
Brilliant as always tweedy. Keep them coming please!! 😎🙏🏻🍺
Fantastic thanks Tweedy! Really enjoy your weekly dose of pubmania! 😁 you know i could be tempted to visit The Owl & Hitchhiker just for the reason of the very pretty barmaid! 😂
She was a real credit to the establishment! I'd quite understand a bit of eye rolling etc from a twenty-something having to deal with a weird middle aged man in tweed coming into the pub taking photos of all the fixtures and fittings (I did ask first if that was ok!) but she just smiled politely and let me get on with it.
@@TweedyPubs Excellent, I guess thats very rare for her to see someone taking pictures of the pub and not of people, makes a refreshing change lol, well I suppose if the pub doesnt quite make the grade at least there is something else more pleasant on the eye 😁
Another excellent review. Ive been to Holloway a few times but never stopped in one of its pubs. Cant remember why. Im loving the interesting history. On locals pubs, i agree that they are not always the most welcoming to strangers but they can be a vital part of the local community which is a great British tradition I hope we never lose. Cheers Tweedy.
I enjoyed this. The Half Moon was my local and it was a tough pub in the day. Fellas who were barred from the Archway would go in. I saw Grease in the Coronet and had pints in there when Witherspoon made it a pub. I was in the Enkel recently after the Arsenal game and was packed out into the street. Lots of the other pubs are gone but nice to see some survive
Hi john, a really great crawl around Holloway and then to boot you get all your followers coming up with some great comments too.
I guess it must be the same all over the UK old traditional pubs being converted into something else and then coming all the way back to there origins according to fashion. Same with cinemas, the Coronet could have been in any high street, fantastic facade.
Its obvious really but Holloway must have been that hence the name!! I did chuckle seeing the Watney logo all over the Prince Edward, I cant remember the last time I saw that. If you go to Portsmouth you will see Brickwoods tiled into a lot of old (or ex) pubs. They were the main brewer there before being taken over by Whitbreads.
Great video, well done. All the best!!
Mr Tweedy,you even researched the cheesecake (unbelievable 😅).I was up that way Saturday and had a couple of those guinness' in the prince Edward..Great video..
Here was me thinking I had unearthed a hidden gem nobody would have heard of and now you're the second person who has said in the comments you've been there! I hope your pints of Guinness were as good as mine!
@TweedyPubs it is a hidden gem alright.
Always a pleasant and welcome surprise to see the latest Tweedy sojourn on Thursday just in time for the weekend. This one from an area I'm not familiar with but will make a mental note for a future visit, hopefully this autumn. Perhaps a viewer meetup could be sorted for those who would consider it a right cracking experience to tag along with Tweedy.
Thanks Al! As I mentioned in the video a couple of these pubs are bordering on the sort of place where you walk through the saloon doors, the piano player stops, and everyone turns around to look at you! ...but I was on my best behaviour and the staff / locals I spoke to were actually all very pleasant. So maybe it was all in my head?
Those are my favorite kind of pubs indeed..superb work on your part.@@TweedyPubs
Good to see you out and about Mr Tweed, as a suggestion try Smithfield's, some very interesting hostelry's there. including a very nice arts and crafts pub.
Thank you for the video though...aprreciate your efforts...I live other side of the world now which makes these sort of videos more important than ever....loving your channel mate....but pleaes go fine The Swimmer on Hercules Streeet, you'll proper love it...opens after 5pm on a weekday...miday on weekend.
OK I'll give it a go - thanks for the tip!
Good stuff. Sent me down the rabbit hole of the Great Northern Hospital which was on the old map opposite one of the pubs and which I’d never heard of or seen. Demolished for housing - which is fair enough as we need to live somewhere (although still a wee bit sad that it’s gone)
Yes I noticed that on the map too! I did get the sense Holloway is a bit of an unloved corner of London where it's perhaps a bit too easy to get away with knocking some great edifice down and build something else... However Holloway's saving grace may be that (to date) many developers just aren't interested in this part of town!
It was the Royal Northern Hospital, not 'Great'.
So glad it was dry for you, truly dismal today in Ruislip.
Sorry to hear that! It was a bit drizzly towards the end of the day but nothing too serious. I don't think I've ever seen Holloway in sunny weather!
About 150 yards up the road from the Owl & Hitchicker there’s the crown, my favourite pub in the area.
Great video! That Guinness looked really nice (nice price too!) The dog barking @12:22 was it a Jack Russell?
Thanks Seán! I recorded some of the talking bits for the Prince Edward and the Enkel Arms in a local park, while I was waiting for the last pub to open - so yes there definitely could have been passing dogs! I don't recall the particular breed though.
@@TweedyPubs That background talking bit was brilliant!
Did the Coronet have any real ale? And what were their prices?
I visited the Tollgate , another former Wetherspoons, near Turnpike Lane station last year. They had real ale but it was, sadly, undrinkable. They tried to make their beers cheaper than other pubs, £3.99, but they don’t know how to look after and serve ale at all. In general, it felt as though none of the staff has worked in a pub before and they were figuring it out as they went along.
There's a shot of the lineup on the bar at 5:40 and a half of Timothy Taylor's Landlord was £2.50, so presumably £5 a pint. I found typically when that's in a lineup it's one of the more expensive ales. This was actually my first time in the Coronet, so I'm not sure what the prices were like when Wetherspoons were running it. I'd guess they have gone up a bit since then but £5 for a pint (of a beer I'd actually want to drink) is still not bad for London.
Good intent , Wedmore street or the GI as we used to call it
Alas closed for good in 2013... 😢
@@TweedyPubs I used to drink in there before it was demolished and rebuilt as the steam ship if I remember correctly and the Scottish singer, Barbara Dickson used to drink with us in there , she was lovely
I didn’t particularly like your vids at first but fair play your perseverance is playing off, do enjoy anything about London pubs, maybe do one about pubs around the Albert Hall, ones with a particular link maybe, going there for a gig on march 26th, love it there, one of the last bastions of Great Britain from yonder. Keep up the hard work fella 👍👍
I completely understand what you mean about not really liking this channel to begin with. I think it's a good thing on RUclips that normally for any given topic there are lots of different people covering it, they'll all bring their own style / personality / focus / knowledge etc. We all enjoy pubs in a slightly different way and it stands to reason that some people will watch my videos and not really get on with the approach I take.
That said, I'm surprised there aren't more RUclips channels about historic pubs as there's clearly an interest in the subject: this channel is a lot more popular than I expected it to be! Hopefully if nothing else my videos might persuade other people to do something similar and we'll get a better range of personalities covering the subject.
@@TweedyPubs 👍
Holloway? Rough?
Used drink in there girlfriend worked holloway jail cross road good memories ❤
Oscar Wilde spent a little while in the prison too.
Yes I read that! A slight surprise as I remember it being Reading where he did time - although perhaps Holloway was just a temporary arrangement.
@@TweedyPubs I thought it was before Reading but apparently it was after. The Home Secretary apparently feared unrest outside of Reading Prison on the day of Oscar's release and made special arrangements for him to be taken to Holloway to spend his last night of imprisonment. He walked to freedom through the gates of Holloway prison.
@@liamkatt6434 Interesting! I wonder if he headed straight to the Prince Edward?
Rough how dare you it’s very cultured round here 😂
I bet those old geezers are a friendly lot.
I did talk to a couple of the locals and they actually were pretty friendly.
You really could forgive them for not being: "Here I am trying to have a quiet pint and this idiot in a tweed suit starts banging on about Victorian partitions!"
how did you not find The Swimmer at The Grafton Arms....opposite The Hercules.....literally across frd from Odeon.....mate....not sure how you find the pubs....shame
I was mostly relying on CAMRA's list of historic pub interiors for this trip, plus the Coronet was one I already had on my radar from when I was planning that Wetherspoons video. The Grafton isn't on CAMRA's pub heritage list, sounds like maybe they should consider it though! I'll know for next time I'm in the area!
You didn't visit The Swimmer at Grafton Arms? Sacrilege!
I did take a quick look at it on Google Maps but I thought from the photos it had perhaps gone a bit gastro...? Maybe I judged it unfairly? I'm not very familiar with the Holloway area so I was being heavily guided by CAMRA's pub heritage site on this one, and pretty much went to all three pubs they had listed around here (plus the Coronet which had been on my mind since that Wetherspoons video, but I didn't include it there because it had already been sold on by then).
@@TweedyPubs
As almost all pubs, it serves food to survive, but it is a friendly mid-Victorian local. The inside is quite original to my eye, but opened up to a single bar.
"Morning Advertiser 05 November 1863 :
The Grafton Arms, Grafton road, Seven Sisters road, Holloway has been built within the past few months, and from its position must inevitably reap the entire benefit of the enormous neighbourhood by which it is surrounded, as no other Licensed House will be permitted upon the estate. The premises, among other advantages, possess those of a coachhouse and stabling.
The Lease has about ninety years unexpired, at a ground rent of £30."
Terrible content.
Well, not so much. I am now adding “good vestibules” and “Corinthian capitals” to my Tweedy Bingo card.
I’ll never look at a pub the same way again! 😂😂
I do love a Corinthian capital! I think we might need a different bingo card for the pubs channel?
@@TweedyPubsoh, I don’t know: “hello ladies” will surely crop up…
@@barryconway 😂 Perhaps not in the Prince Edward though!
@@TweedyPubs next time you're in the vicinity of Wendover: The White Swan on Wendover High Street - just an *ordinary* pub. Where "ordinary pub" is now such a rare thing. Generally a nice selection of pumps (with guests) and regular kegular. Used to be Fullers (but, well you know...) now owned by another brewery, but I gather that the landlord has negotiated the right to put what he wants on the pumps, which is a very good thing. Their Guinness is *also* good. Tell them "Balloon Chris and Barry sent me" (and you'll likely be barred instantly!)