Club crawls through London pubs

Many thanks to Ian White for organising the annual NSC pub crawl on Saturday, this time focusing on venues in north-west London. Ian hadn't actually had time to dry-run the route beforehand, so it was a bit of a voyage of discovery for all. We started at Ye Olde Swiss Cottage, with a sign that proudly states it to be the only pub with a tube station named after it. The bar staff were intrigued by and appreciative of our sartorial élan and seemed sorry to see us go on to our next port of call, the Carlton Tavern. This proved to be a cosy and popular local, with plenty of families enjoying its charms, but what is most remarkable about it is that a few years ago it was illegally demolished by a developer, and the council forced him to rebuild it brick for brick. They did a good job, as it looks as if it has been untouched for 100 years. Pub 3 was the Kilburn Arms, a large and pleasant space, with relatively few people in it. I assume they were expecting more, as a band were unloading their gear as we left. Pub 4 was the North London Tavern, which had slightly more people in it, but a much rougher clientele. The staff were getting their costumes ready for a Halloween party and, again, clearly they were expecting more of a crowd, as there was security on the door. The inside had been unnecessarily modernised in parts and the atmosphere was spoiled by thumping music, bad acoustics and a rock band sound-checking. We made our excuses and left. The Black Lion turned out to be a highlight of the evening, a spacious pub with amazingly ornate walls and ceilings. Our final destination, the Crown Hotel, was a bit of a let-down: despite being built in 1889 and having some period features in certain parts, the bar area was blandly modern and featured no real ales! But it was all part of the adventure, and for me our beer safari was worth it just for the Black Lion and the Carlton Tavern. Thanks again to Ian for putting the itinerary together.

You can see a few more photos from the crawl at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sheridanclub/albums/72177720321737443.