North London Food & Culture

Annie’s Bar: What Do You Think?


Last night, during a magnificent rain-soaked midweek rampage that took in the Southampton (for “expresso” ale!), The Vine (for polenta with wild mushrooms!) and Heroes (for some late night divebar fashionableness!), Annie’s Bar was the one place that we entered – and weren’t enamoured by.

Why is this? Let’s face it, Mrs Kentishtowner will pretty much sup anywhere. She confesses she ‘quite likes’ the kitschy interior, although it should, she suggests, be ‘darker and candle-lit’; she ‘quite likes’ the bar staff and the ‘wacky’ toilets; and she even – fussy cow though she is – quite likes the cosmopolitans, on the rare occasions she has lingered long enough to sample one.

‘But there’s something so depressing and regional about it all,’ she said, with a groan, last night, as we snuck out sans drink, the rain lashing. ‘It’s the clientele – they just seem to stare at a blank spot on the wall. It’s like some awful cabaret bar in Blackpool.’


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So we put it to you, Annie’s Bar: how about a re-jig? A food menu? Proper tables and chairs? Some kind of vibe?

‘You’d have more of a laugh in O’Neil’s, over the road,’ sighed Mrs KT, as we sat, beer in hand, in the Abbey’s quite magical garden.

But maybe we’re wrong. Maybe it has its fans. What do you think?

Photo by Ewan-M


9 thoughts on “Annie’s Bar: What Do You Think?”

  1. It doesn’t seem to know what sort of bar it wants to be. Years back it was a lot of fun but now it pretends to be a provincial cocktail bar that serves European beers in large glasses. It would be better if it were one thing only, rather than trying to please everyone

  2. Hear, hear. It really doesn’t ‘fit in’ in Kentish Town. It’s a shame, I can see what they’re trying to do (kitsch, cosy, quirky), but it just doesn’t work for me – I always walk on by!

  3. Absolutely agree, really don’t like it. I would not feel right going there for a drink, but can’t put my finger on why. Though I wouldn’t have gone there when it was the old, yellow Annies either!

  4. I like everything about it

    The hall of Versailles look is fab

    Bouncers on the door at w/e – great

    Plus none of the trendy/scruffy/druggy-shandy mob that pollute the other bars

    No food – excellent – no pubs should sell food or Guinness as they delay serving proper drinkers

    Arguably, this is the traditional Kentish Town

  5. Annies Bar is simply the best Bar in Kentish Town without a doubt, the decor has to be seen to be believed and there is a great crowd there. Unless of cours you prefer the spit and sawdust pubs full of old men with caps!

  6. Annie’s is the absolute worst. The clientele are awful, always spilling out on to the street and getting in to fights. I live in the area and Annie’s has no respect for local people, playing loud music (especially on open mic nights) until all hours with the doors wide open. On a Friday or Saturday we are lucky if we can get to sleep. Complaining to the council results in nothing.

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9 thoughts on “Annie’s Bar: What Do You Think?”

  1. It doesn’t seem to know what sort of bar it wants to be. Years back it was a lot of fun but now it pretends to be a provincial cocktail bar that serves European beers in large glasses. It would be better if it were one thing only, rather than trying to please everyone

  2. Hear, hear. It really doesn’t ‘fit in’ in Kentish Town. It’s a shame, I can see what they’re trying to do (kitsch, cosy, quirky), but it just doesn’t work for me – I always walk on by!

  3. Absolutely agree, really don’t like it. I would not feel right going there for a drink, but can’t put my finger on why. Though I wouldn’t have gone there when it was the old, yellow Annies either!

  4. I like everything about it

    The hall of Versailles look is fab

    Bouncers on the door at w/e – great

    Plus none of the trendy/scruffy/druggy-shandy mob that pollute the other bars

    No food – excellent – no pubs should sell food or Guinness as they delay serving proper drinkers

    Arguably, this is the traditional Kentish Town

  5. Annies Bar is simply the best Bar in Kentish Town without a doubt, the decor has to be seen to be believed and there is a great crowd there. Unless of cours you prefer the spit and sawdust pubs full of old men with caps!

  6. Annie’s is the absolute worst. The clientele are awful, always spilling out on to the street and getting in to fights. I live in the area and Annie’s has no respect for local people, playing loud music (especially on open mic nights) until all hours with the doors wide open. On a Friday or Saturday we are lucky if we can get to sleep. Complaining to the council results in nothing.

Leave a Comment

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The award-winning print and online title Kentishtowner was founded in 2010 and is part of London Belongs To Me, a citywide network of travel guides for locals. For more info on what we write about and why, see our About section.