Every couple of years or so I repeat the above question to the invariably charming bar staff at the Pineapple pub in Leverton Street – and they always look blank. Well they might: it was in 1984 that the then landlady disappeared upstairs to make it, but my cheese doorstop never appeared.
Now I’ve almost given up hope, not because it’s gradually dawning on me that the order might have been forgotten, but because in a Kentish Town pub today you’re more likely to be offered a butternut squash risotto – or even, as the Grafton website proposes, “Vegetables and salad from our good friends at Highgate Allotments and the Mind Urban Growth project”.
This week’s news that both the Bull & Gate and the Junction Tavern are to have new owners serves as a reminder that the local pub scene has changed out of nearly all recognition since the late 1970s, which was when I moved to the area. And, of course, such changes have been a reflection of how the world at large and the social make-up of Kentish Town itself have moved on.
Whatever concerns patrons may feel about possible imminent changes to the Bull & Gate and the Junction, their acquisition by, respectively, Young’s and Camden Bars does at least mean they won’t be turned into small blocks of “residential units”. There is money in the area – and a population who like to go out and spend it – and the competition in catering hots up all the time as niches and edges are constantly sought by proprietors.
There are dangers in this march of pub-trade progress. The “ordinary working man who likes his pint” is in danger of being edged to the door, and the further erosion of local character is a prospect – the end of live music at the Bull & Gate being a very regrettable example; and strong defences must be erected against any creeping northwards by the Camden Town scene. On the other hand, there is much to relish in the burgeoning contemporary K-Town bar scene – and the two recent developments suggest probable pluses in the pipeline in the form of excellent ale at the Bull & Gate and an increased emphasis on the bar side at the Junction.
For the area’s resident or visiting pub-goer, the glass is certainly more than half full, but if you want a cheese sandwich as accompaniment – it’s hard cheddar.
Main photograph: Stephen Emms
Martin James writes for the Sunday Times.
9 thoughts on ““Any sign of my cheese sandwich?” Martin James on the march of NW5’s pub-trade progress”
We must be very alert to the danger of pubs running down (or being run down for whatever reason..) and then being converted into flats. A recent planning application was for a development to replace the Gloucester Arms pub in Leighton Road. Although the application was turned down, it was not because anyone objected to the loss of the pub. Speaking to people in that area, I found that it had been very popular at one time but there had been a period when it had been badly run and although the present management were respected, it had never recovered. So even those who will regret the loss of the pub accepted that there was no chance of saving it. In the last 20 years, I reckon that over half the pubs in the area of Kentish Town west of the high street have closed.
Brian
Thoroughly agree. Here’s the planning application to knock down the Golden Lion, one of the last remaining Camden boozers that made Camden great in the first place – which could be turned in to flats. Please object if you like a proper drink in a proper pub http://planningrecords.camden.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer17/Generic/StdDetails.aspx?PT=Planning+Applications+On-Line&TYPE=PL%2FPlanningPK.xml&PARAM0=342406&XSLT=%2FNorthgate%2FPlanningExplorer17%2FSiteFiles%2FSkins%2Fcamden%2Fxslt%2FPL%2FPLDetails.xslt&FT=Planning+Application+Details&PUBLIC=Y&XMLSIDE=%2FNorthgate%2FPlanningExplorer17%2FSiteFiles%2FSkins%2Fcamden%2FMenus%2FPL.xml&DAURI=PLANNING
Well for those of us who live round here & are surrounded by old pubs converted into gastro bars, it was good at first, you had a choice, but you not now when they’ve all become bloody gastro pubs & expensive too boot.
Now it’s the old Irish working class pubs that are the novelty, so thank the lawd for the Boston, cheapish beer, no pretensions, no blackboards, no jus* though you can get a roll: ham, cheese & onion or corned beef.
*once told landlord of Dartmouth he should chalk up: “fagioli in a pomodoro jus on a grilled ciabatta slice” – i.e. beans on toast
Fingers crossed the Boston goes the same way as living in an adjacent street is a bloody nightmare. The shouting, swearing, screaming arguments, litter, urinating and drug dealing (make a call and meet your man in Burghley rd is the norm) by the idiot patrons outside our homes at silly o’clock is unbearable for many of us families with young children. I’ve witnessed it all – including a serious assault that left someone in a really bad way. The police don’t seem to care and invariably respond slowly when we report the fighting etc. Let Camden Town have the dickheads I say. And before anyone accuses me of being a middle-class ponce – I am the child of an east-end publican who knew how to run a boozer properly.
Aces and Eights you are by no means innocent here.
Never seen any trouble round aces and eights in all the times I’ve been there, you middle class ponce.
Don’t want to break it to you, but people urinate by Tufnell Park tube station in broad daylight when the Boston hasn’t even opened. That hasn’t got anything to do with the Boston that is just some of the ‘characters’ who live round here. The Boston is a great pub and one of few that remain welcoming and unsnobby. Probably a good idea to move to a quieter street if the local pubs are annoying you that much, rather than kill any remaining character the area has.
Agree re aces and eights running a pub. Quite rude at times! However not seen any trouble. I am gutted about the Bull and Gate, but there are still traditional, good pubs in the area if you want that sort of thing. The Old Eagle on Royal College Street is a prime example. If we all dislike gastro-pubs so much, how about not eating there? They’ll stop food soon enough then.
The Boston is one of the few remaining pubs that is still a proper pub. Chances are that the neighbours are more recent than the pub, so if they don’t like it they shouldn’t have moved there in the first place.
Bostons a dive. End of