3. Sunday family fave the Spaniards Inn has a spruce-up
We haven’t been for a while, but were surprised to hear this week that the Spaniards’ Inn, one of London’s oldest (and most haunted) boozers – y’know, the one that perches right on the far edge of the Heath – has had a “tasteful refurb”. Its interior has always seemed timeless enough to us, but then whaddaweknow?
The key word in all this seems to be “sensitive” as everyone knows they’d be crazy to spruce up a sixteenth century pub too much. Those dark panelled walls are, as we all appreciate, to die for. And that garden! Didn’t Keats write there, and Dickens conduct his various trysts? Gasp.
The main point of change is, we believe, the upstairs, which inevitably has become a dining room with “glittering chandeliers.” We have to say that previously the food was always a bit hit and miss, but now of course the menu is positively upscale, dotted with ingredients like smoked ocean trout, violet potatoes, quail, quinoa, heirloom tomato and bone marrow.
Sounds quite posh. But then it’s in an almightily posh part of the capital, right? We haven’t yet checked all this out but will report back when we do. Spaniards Road NW3
Next: one reader reckons Kentish Town was always squalid
3 thoughts on “Pinboard: New free April print issue out now! Plus Bull & Gate, Spaniards Inn and St Pancras Old Church”
I’ve always found the row of shops on Fortess Road leading up from the junction with Kentish Town Rd to The Junction a little disconcerting:
-the hat shop that never looks open
-the thai restaurant that never seems to have any customers (but does seem to have a revamp on an annual basis)
-the junk shop with the cage permanently outside (often with furry handcuffs on)
Having previously lived in the piano shop that’s no longer a piano shop, it was a very odd road to walk along daily. Genuine new arrivals would distinctly improve that road.
The hat shop? You mean the tailor Chris Ruocco? Try a bit later in the day. I think earlier in the morning Chris is busy organizing things at the men’s pond on the Heath. He has a harmonium (or some small keyboard instrument) in the front of the shop, and has specialized in clothes for musicians, including – most famously – George Michael in the Wood Green early years. Very much worth asking Chris for a Kentishtowner interview: has many stories to tell.
Agree – I knew someone who had a suit made by Chris and he mentioned Diana Ross used to pop in also.