North Pole

No Longer In Business

Posthumous review for my own archives. Visited once or twice. Mainly notable for having a decent, if not especially esoteric, mix of cask and craft keg beers when that sort of thing wasn’t the norm. You’d certainly find somwthing worth drinking here. In the "handy if you’re passing but not a destination in itself" category. But, as it wasn’t really on the way to, or from, anywhere that I regularly visited, that wasn’t too often.

I’m not sure when it closed but it reopened in September 2015 as a Hitchcock-themed pub under the name North By Northwest. I’ve not been there so I can’t comment on its merits. However, I note that their website refers to "a local range of craft beers from Islington, Hackney & Camden" and WhatPub suggests it has five cask ales including a regular from Hammerton and LocAle accreditation. So it may be worth a look.

Bit of a pain to get to. And once you are there it is a pleasant pub with a fairly large selection of beers. However too often the beers are bog standards so not worth the long trek but good if in the area. Lots of people say the food is excellent. Bus 271 stops outside or a 15 min walk from the Wenlock Arms.

Found this place by accident about a year ago. Very pleasant surprise with the beer range, 2 Kernels plus other hop monsters made a pleasant little session in this area. If you buy 8 beers, the 9th was free. We were in a group! Well worth a visit. Food looked hearty.

Not a bad place. One that I regularly enjoy a beer in but so many times the selection doesn’t move forward enough for me. Service and food are good. It is big enough top take a group of friends along too.

The bar in London is now set too high to fall in Love with this place. If you live 5 minutes away you would not be unhappy, but a destination craft beer venue, its simply not. The selection is 100% better than your average bog standard pub but its a 1000% behind London’s serious beer venues. The cask selection was more impressive, keg and bottle uninspiring. Food was nice, fresh and worth the money.

Great selection, friendly staff, well kept real ales. Bit of a trek from the tube but worth it. Excellent.

We visited here Saturday 3rd November 2012 with my dad and Jackie & Simon, in fact it was Jackie & Simon who took us here as Simon had heard about it being highly rated in some broadsheet London pub survey. There was a decent range of beers with Magic Rock Cannonball, along with a Norwegian offering (forgot name) and various local new London breweries. Nicely laid out with the bar straight in front of you as you enter and with most of the drinking areas either side of this. There are areas for eating at the front of the pub to the right and right again as you enter. The food looked quite decent with a large plate of ribs coming past us as we sat with our beers. Service was fine, pub was comfortable and remember the Beavertown brewpub is only about 10-12 mins walk away. This was on a direct bus route from London Bridge 141 service I think the bus stopping just a few hundred yards away around the corner, it is also relatively close to the Haggerston overground station if you want to do it the other way around, i.e. Beavertown first and this pub second. All in all a decent bar not quite in the same league as Craft, Cask & Kitchen, Brewdog etc but well worth popping into if nearby. I also thought it was just a tad on the pricey side compared to some.

The North Pole’s a hip local boozer with a beer selection that’s much better than average. There’s 10 casks and 12 kegs, plus an additional 40 bottles or so on offer. Beerwise, the selection’s a bit of a mixed bag. The pub clearly tries to offer something for casual visitors and more discerning customers alike. Some of the beers on tap are approachable to the average punter (Meantime, Innis & Gunn), but they also have a number of interesting options (Magic Rock etc). This is also apparent in the bottle selection, where you’ll see the likes of Modelo and Pabst available alongside beers from Nogne. All beers are served in proper glassware. The pub also offers growlers to take away, something of a novelty for a London pub. The ambiance is cosy and inviting. The pub’s pretty large, there’s a number of different seating areas including a garden patio and a basement games room with a pinball machine. There’s a jukebox available, but it wasn’t working on my visit. The service is attentive, decent. The food was surprisingly good, much better than most pubs. My Sunday roast was absolutely massive in size, and very tasty. The value’s decent for the area. Overall, this place is certainly worth a look. Like The White Horse On Parsons Green, this is a good neutral location to take non-beer geek friends out. The North Pole offers some good beer in an inclusive, social setting.