Uk Barblog

Duke of York (Kings Cross Station - London)

Duke of York

At first glance the Duke of york is a bit of a shack of a shop, white stone walls, a number of old people and busy travellers stopping for a fast pint. The place has very little class or style to it but the service is good and the prices are also quite reasonable with 3 shots of aftershock for £4.50. The place would be much better if it was bigger to accomodate the number of people wading among those standing and sitting desperately seeking a chair and a place to pop a suitcase. The venue basically feels like the waiting room that essentially it is and although there are one or two touches to try and bring the place into some level or style and ornament it doesnt work.

Overall its very reasonable for a pub in a busy station as this is, if your looking for a place to have a quick pint between trains and you have relatively little luggage it might be worth it 5/10

The Square Tavern (Euston Square - London)

The Square Tavern

A very well hidden lodge of a bar behind Euston Square station. Even ooutside the front door you feel like you could be in a housing complex in the middle of a nature reserve (think Centre Parks) rather than in the middle of a monster metropolis. Inside we come across proper poker tables where a poker club apparently convienes weekly, The bar sits ahead while the poker tables are to the left and to the right are a couple of couches and comfortable low chairs with stool sat the bar. The bar has a good assortment of beers on offer by tap. The atmosphere is really quite quiet - its comofrtable and cosy enought o have a private conversation but it is a bit of an older person's abode.

Overall it feels liek its trying to be a lot more trendy than it is, but it is quite different from any pub in the area, providing you can find it, but if your raring to get the party started on a weeknight this might not be your cup of tea - 5/10

The Rocket (Euston - London)

The Rocket

A nice rock-indie-emo-student den poking into the busy runway of a pavement stetching from Euston to Kings Cross. The place is perhaps bigger than it looks from the outside and popualted by 20somethings from open to close. The bar is quite small but offers a rather good selections of drinks. The decor is also rich and intriguing with exotic lighting over the bar, fairy lights and images of flowers in the windows. Three shots set us back £4.50 and fruit beer was on tap to wash them down. There is also screens for sport int he corners but this does not dominate the effect of the place.

Overall this is a very like-able fun and fresh bar for studnets and young people alike, I can see it overcrowding later on but which such reasonable prices it is not hard to see why - 7/10

The Castle (Pentenville Road - London)

The Castle

A bright jazzy bar on this stretch of road between Angel and Kings Cross is a welkcome stop for those in need of comfortable surroundings and a team of friendly staff to make your transition into this bubbly sphere of modern hippism, a journey to enjoy. The place is very quiet in the day which is good since seating is not abundent. The place has a small bar to the right then stretches off into a curious back of the pub where food is available as well. The wooden tables are strange and somehow seem more publike that the rest of the decor in the airy-fairy of a drinkery, but it has such a relaxing charm to it that one cannot help but smile.

Overall perhaps not the madness many drinkers are after but to cool off after tackling upper street this pub is rather recommended - 6/10

Part of the Official MONOPOLY PUB CRAWL

The Doric Arch (Euston Station - London)

The Doric Arch

Parked by the numerous bus stops outside euston station this crows-nest of a pub lives at the top of some stairs leading off the pavement outside. Inside its an attic with sport on a couple of screens with a raised area to the right of the bar. The bar seems so low down that it is merely a hurdle at the knees of the burly barman which reaches along one side of the pub. The place is full of loud 50-something aged men and the walls are plastered in old station memorabelia. The place does feel more like a local than a pit-stop for weary travellors as you might expect it to be. There is a standard supply of ales and beers but even in the winter this place gets very stuffy and with a constant stream of tourists poking their heading up at the top of the stairs and then disappearing this place feels like its trying to hide but fails.

Overall a bit of a mystery of a feeling upon departing. The temperature is too high, the crowd is too male-dominated and the overall effect is a little on the disappointing side - 4/10 

The Prince Arthur (Euston - London)

The Prince Arthur

Euston Station hides this pub in its shadow. Relatively busy inside with nice leather sofas and small but with a thick-set central bar. There are flowers on all of the tables and the bar persons are a tolken above friendly making the experience fully enjoyable. There is also a good variety of drinks on the bar and with picnic tables out the front it also brings in one or two sun-bunnies. Truely this is one of those nicer-than-cosy winter abodes where you can feel the shake of the tube under your feet every few minutes, offset by the table service which feels oh-so-lazy since the bar is within arms reach and never overcrowded.

Overall a much loved pub in what appears to be a less-than-lovely location. If you have an hour to kill at Euston station wander down the road for one in here, definitely not one you'd regret. 6/10

Grafton Arms (Warren Street - London)

Grafton Arms

A simple looking pub with the novelty of a rooftop bar. We headed here ready to be astounded by views of london and lavish drinks and the rush of being really high up. Outside people filled the badly maintained pavement and within the colours fall darker and a dim, realxing glow takes over the bar woman is friendly at the long bar along the left hadside of what appears to be a rather small woody room with a staircase upward on the right. This staircase leads up to a second bar room and then further up to those lavish london views. Yes thats right, skyscrapers and monster buildings have reduced this view to a higher perspective on concrete than miles of splendor.

The rooftop is laidne with plants and such but they do not improve the lack of view, the only up side is that it seems to catch the sun quite well but be wary of private parties which can steal the only thing worth coming here for before you even get in the door. 5/10

The Brittannia (Euston Station - London)

The Brittannia

A medium sized bar up a flight of stairs and so above euston station. Packed with travellors of all sorts. So busy people resort to sharing the corners of tables. Its got a balcony- with a simple but effective way to hideaway from the rest of the station. Beer and cider availabel on tap at the relatively small bar. Mixed table heights. Expectantly expensive but carpetted. Everything feels like it has been crammed into the available space with quiet 80s music in the background. It just feels full of people on dates with secret lovers from work or lonely ugly folk and yet it remains popular.

It tries to be a non-station pub but with this cliche of locations it is no-ones choice for a pint. 3/10

Crown and Anchor (Euston - London)

Crown and Anchor

I enter this place with Michael Jackson playing- inside I find a corner bar stretching form the centre of the pub down into the rest of it. There are a few scattered tables and some leather wall-set benches. The venue remains rather bright in the middle of the day and of an afternoon the sun pours right onto your table. The place has a feel of uplift and comfort but the bar persons take their job too seriously and don't give very many smiles. The drinks are very well priced and £5 for a bottle of wine is better than wetherspoons! the pub is small however and it quickly gets overcrowded as an evening looms.

Overall the place is perfectly suited for a drink after work - get down here and get a table before six when the place begins to pack and you feel the walls close in as the sun disappears behind the homeless person sweeping through the pub asking for a shilling or two to buy a rug from a Sicilian goldfish. 6/10.

The Big Chill House (Kings Cross - London)

The Big Chill House

A hall-like bar in Kings Cross with red curtain, chandelears and a bar wrapped around a corner of the room that juts into the middle of it. The air is more up makret in the evening than it would appear in the pictures above.  The crowd is quite young and the hall flows under a gallery above towards a dancelfoor at the back with dj booth. The music is very chilled as appears to be the theme of the place playing reggae and modern jazz. Drinks are about five pounds a cocktail and they have a lounge downstairs for events which consists of a few nice leather red chairs and tables and a very small bar with a large fake fire to accompany the overheating that can occur down here.

Back upstairs it makes you wish there was more seating but the spaces are used for the few that are dancing even early on in the evening. Overall i was impressed with the prices and decor but the events room is not the best, definittly nice for a few if you just got off the train- 7/10

Masque Bar (Kings Cross - London)

Masque Bar

A rather happening 'Bassy' small club next to Kings Cross station masquerades by day as perhaps a derelict shop and at night falls victim to pumping chillout and slow dance beats. You enter to the corner of a rounded bar with leather couches dotted about. The DJ sits in a booth opposite the bar at the back lost in his own world of music while the relatively few people mingle about the place. Noticeably at the end of the evening it is very uncrowded which is quite nice if you are looking for a small club where you cant here yourself think with no people in at the end of a Friday night. The drinks are at usual cost of about £3 a pint and upon a visit the toilets were shabby but not actually dirty.

Overall the place gets 5/10. It has a good bar with solid music with a good location but too small to be an impressive club and could really do with some redecorating!

Canvas (Roller Disco) - (Kings Cross - London)

Canvas (Roller Disco)

This was an amazing experience!! I have never been on wheels before so the best idea ever was to get some drinks in in Camden and then make our way to Canvas, a large warehouse/club behind Kings Cross station to roller skate to some banging tunes. We booked the tickets in advance (£14 each) and picked them up on the door- or rather froma  pink van outside the front door and made our way inside, dumping stuff off at the cloakroom then up the stairs into a large room. We picked up our skates from a hole in the wall in the corner and sitting down on the uber-oversized leather seatings with about 30 other people strapped my skates on. The decor of the place was amazing, you could still tell you were in a warehouse but there was terrific flashes of red and pink lighting and fabric drapped all around. To my left was bar serving shots at £3.50 a pop and bottles at £4. Very expensive. The main skating floor had a sideline of more couches and the beginners were all given the opportunity to get some unrushed instruction for free. This room led down a ramp into a second room with a bar, a little darker than the first with a massive skating floor and this led down further into a dark-rave like rink with a DJ in the middle and some awesome skaters running backward circles around the beginners.

The crowd was sensitive to new skaters but it is easy to see why some peopel might be intimidated. Curiously the crowd is a black:white ratio of 4:1. The experience was terrific. Would definitely go again and if it wasnt for the expense i would get drunk on skates too!! Overall 8/10, they have done a fantastic job !!!

The Shire's Cafe (Kings Cross - London)

The Shire's Cafe

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Dec 2006: The Shire's Cafe has now Closed Perminently

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In St Pancras Station sits a rather glum looking bar, the bar with the least amount of character in these parts but what would you expect from a bar constructed solely to entertain the alcoholics that get that descrete one in before getting on the train. It is just simply a plastic lounge with crap tables dug out of a school storage warehouse where it looks like they dug out the single TV set in the place. There's a fair decent games machine or two but the bar is expensive and looks very shop-fronty- simply a display of pumps manned by a guy that normally cleans the aisles on the train. Quiet music and a good temperature to get out of the heat in the summer months.

It is terrible though, don't go in here for any good reason, if you are an alcoholic wait til you get on the train to buy armfuls of miniatures. Overall 1/10.

The Driver (Kings Cross)

The Driver Pub

I went into this pub for a lunch with work colleagues a few days ago so i really can't comment on the drink but the food was amazing. We waited ages for it but the portions were hefty and for a very reasonable price for london with the avergae main course only being about £5. The drinks were a little pricey that then I only had a coke and an OJ. The place with rather cramped and there were too many tables and chair for it to warrent being a place to go out of an evening.

Overall this pub gets a 6/10 because although the food was amazing the prices for drink are likely to be sky high and its just a cramped atmosphere

Fives UCL Student Union (Euston - London)

Fives UCL Student Union



I last went to this place on a promo night i'll never forget, ever! What a superb deal-look out for this night. You will need to be a student so have an NUS card and of course a fiver on the door. Its five themed bars one on top of another with everything ranging from western to disco, old school pub and hiphop bar goping on and the drinks were only 50p- 50p for any shot and mixer, any pint of anything. So for a 4 pint pitcher of Snakebite with a double tequila top was only £3. utterly wasted? naturally. It took a while to get served and with such exclusivity it loses valuable marks but this got up pretty high for me.

Rated 9/10 (but i cant guarentee you can get in)