Camden secret pub crawl

This pub crawl started at the Old Eagle pub on Royal College Street:

The decor is traditional pub with lots of wood: wood panelling, wooden floor and old style mismatched wooden tables and chairs, livened up with old musical instruments hung about the place:

You can see the violins, guitars and a trombone through the window!

They stock a decent selection of drinks – including Guiness and extra cold Guiness on tap and good deals on the house spirits. This is not the place for speciality beers though…The Old Eagle has more secrets though!

There is a beer garden with a ping pong table sectioned off under a covered area, tables out front on the pavement and they serve Thai food – prawn crackers make great beer snacks! They also have a quiz night. The best bit is that it’s not too far out from the centre of Camden and yet hardly ever packed…

 

Find it here: The Old Eagle

 

From the Old Eagle we headed down Royal College Street, past Camden Road overground station (see it really is that close!) to The Colonel Fawcett on Randolf Street.

Their very smart front garden area.

A couple of years ago I hosted Gin Club with a Reading Problem here and we tried some of their 60+ gins. Unfortunately the fun of gin tasting was let down by over enthusiastic tonic-age (too much and too strong – drowning the gin flavour), so now I try to minimise the potential damage (order doubles and pour your own tonic).

The steaks were also pretty amazing – that same evening I had dinner with about 16 people for my birthday after we were finished drinking the gin… it was drunken!

Lunch offers are a bargain!

So when I walked past the menu the other day I literally salivated – but on the pub crawl we were only there for drinks 🙁 I am VERY excited about their Saturday brunch 11am-5pm (incredibly civilised hours!). On Sundays there are roast dinners from 12pm, so need to go back try the food out again!

Anyway back to the gin-age. This was their special of the week, a local one, King of Soho in an oversized goblet (the best kind!) with grapefruit and tonic – yum!

Secrets of The Colonel Fawcett: again they have a back garden and a relatively late license. Being off the beaten track near Camden Road overground station, they are usually quiet enough to get a seat but lively enough for the atmosphere to be good – even on a Monday night!

You can find more details on their website here: The Colonel Fawcett

The next one up is a bit of a cheat… We then headed back to Camden High Street to the Blues Kitchen… Not really a pub, not really a secret, but very good fun!

The fake ‘distressed’ outside to the Blues Kitchen.

If there is anything secret about the Blues Kitchen it’s probably their live music, every night, and fabulous selection of bourbon (oops I don’t drink it :s )

Not so secret live music!

If you need a place to drink, appreciate live music and dance til the wee hours midweek in Camden, then the Blues Kitchen is the place for you! I love the vibe in here, like I said, it’s really good fun. There was no dancing for me on Monday, but the band were good and we were tapping along. All the tables and booths are available to hire and if you are with a big group that’s worth doing. Find out more here.

And so ends the first Secret Pubs of Camden pub crawl! Look out for further installments…