Duke of Wellington

A classic British medium-sized corner pub in the Dalston area of northern London. An oval island bar serving seating places around the bar. Dark wooden interiors, well kept and cared for. A freehouse with five cask pumps facing the entrance. Excellent, well conditioned cask ales and a good vibe late on a Wednesday eve (Visited with Finn, 26.09.2018).

Noisy but nice. 4 casks. 15sh kegs. One cider. Old fashioned island-bar pub. Pavement seating as well. Well treated casks.

Have visited a few times but mainly when there’s been a festival on. These are quite low key affairs with a resonable number of stillaged beers. It’s been a while since I’ve been so I don’t know whether they’re still doing them. Otherwise, it’s four or five handpumps with the chance of something interesting from a smaller, often local, brewery. That said, I’ve been in on occasion and found nothing much of interest. There’s also 20 or so bottles, including a fair few from London craft brewers (although nothing particularly out of the ordinary) and a rather low key keg selection from the likes of Adnams, Meantime, Camden etc. The general impression is that it has fallen behind in the beer selection stakes althogh it’s decent enough for a pub catering mainly to (well-heeled) locals. The pub is a comfortable enough spot but can get busy in the evening and has gastro leanings. Worth a peek if yoyu’re passing but not a beer destination - I don’t think that’s really their main focus.

Visited during a local beer festival. They were all in bottles though. Just regular stuff on tap. Not a lot of selection, about five taps, a couple of dozen or so bottles. Friendly enough service, at least one of them was well versed in stuff. Ales in good condition. Nice traditional local drinkery. Local people having jugs of Pimms.

Visited this place 14/01-2012 on the Great Overground Pub Crawl. Very cosy traditionel corner pub, with the bar in the center of the pub. They have sweet half pints mugs :-). Friendly staff and nice atmosphere, they do from time to time small festivals.

A nice pub. I visited during their ale festival emphasizing London breweries. They had good stuff on: Kernel, Brodies and more. One of the beers I had was in shockingly poor condition, but in general the quality was fine. The place itself is nice, quite spacious with seating both indoors and out. Average prices, nice staff. Certainly a place worth popping into now and then.

An attractive unspoilt street corner pub, slightly down at heel but with lots of charm. It has four hand pumps with real ale and a few ciders. (Visited 14 January 2012).

I visited during their single hop ale festival. The bar had all eight hand pumps firing, plus more beer on gravity available. Most beers were totally fine, though the Crouch Vale Amarillo was probably on its last legs. The bottle selection seemed decent for a pub that doesn’t attempt to be a beer mecca - Orval, Bristol Beer Factory, and Flying Dog were available alongside some not so desirable names. The food was OK. The clientele’s quite hip, what you’d expect in the neighborhood. Overall, not a place to travel to, but it’s a decent option if you’re in the area.

A nice comfy place with a standard english pub feel to it. Nothing special, nothing bad. The inside is nicely organized and lets you socialize. It was a nice sunny spring day and the light came nicely through the curtains. The service was ok, got a few odd looks time after time but got good service at the counter. I wasn’t impressed with the selection, could have used a bit more variety. Didn’t taste the food. A nice place to stop by, but really nothing more.

A newly opened quality beer focused gastropub close to Dalston Kingsland station and a five minute bus ride from Highbury & Islington. A regular spot for Sambrook’s Wandle. Eight handpumps, usually serving four beers (hence quoting four taps). Traditional features include emphasis on wood (floors, wall panels and tables etc). An island bar in centre of main drinking area affords space and easy circulation all round. A second drinking area provided in rear annexe. All tungsten lighting affords a warm atmosphere; comfortable volume of background music (mixed styles). Food is served all sessions and quite an imaginative menu is offered, but not cheap. Outside seating is provided along the western aspect of the building, and this provided a pleasant view of the bright sunset on view on my inaugural visit of 11th August. Staff seemed friendly; did not get a lot of time to speak to them as I had company and we were on a crawl. Will be returning for their festival running from 13/8/09 - 17/8/09 - see EVENTS for details (thirty ales will be served through the period of this festival). A good venue.