Canonbury Tavern, N1 2NS
- 21 Canonbury Place
- N1 2NS
- Address: 21 Canonbury Place, London N1 2NS.
- Locale: Islington / Canonbury
- Nearby tube stops: Highbury and Islington Station
The Canonbury has been closed since October 2006. No news on if it will reopen or be redeveloped as yet.
The Canonbury
Hidden away in the back streets of Canonbury is the Tavern. Just opposite the rather odd folly of the Canonbury Tower, the Tavern is a large, high-ceilinged pub with a selection of draught ales and beers and some bottled beers. The pub is quite large and open planned, all on one floor. They have quite a few large tables (that can easily seat ten or so) so it's quite nice for large groups. They also do food and have a pool table (�1.50 a game)
Oh, and there's a nice selection of papers lying around on a Sunday morning - perfect for that post-Hollyoaks, lazing-drinking-and-playing-pool mood.
The quiz on a tuesday is always great for a laugh.
Drinks
The selection of bottled beers is excellent -- some really good Belgian ones like Duval, which will knock your head off. Prices are midway, not particularly cheap for London, but not outrageous either. You'll pay (off the top of me ead) �2.80 for a pint of Staropramen, for example. The house bitter is Landlord Timothy Taylor. There have been some doubts of the quality of the draught beer (a bit cloudy) of late. Not anymore!!!
If you go for the bottled raspberry beer, make sure it doesn't come out of the bottle all syrupy. It's a known bug. They'll replace the bottle for free, but a mouthful of syrup if you're not being vigilant is fairly icky.
Food
The food's pretty expensive and not that special, to be honest. Some of it is a little Islington -- burgers in foccacia, for example. Although they do get extra points from Kake for being able to do a vegan one, ie hummous and sundried tomatoes in foccacia -- it cost about �4 IIRC. They stop doing food at 10pm and I have to say they do a top roast on Sundays.
Oh, and the only crisps they have are Kettle chips. Yes, you're in Canonbury, so get used to it. But the do have olives.
Garden
Out back of the pub is a large garden with whopping great big benches. It's basic (just grass and seats) but really spacious (eighty people wouldn't even push it.) It's surrounded by large conker trees, and is quite pleasent, being down a relative backstreet.