The best pubs in Camden

The best pub in Camden is Tapping the Admiral on Castle Road: eight cask ales, up to four ciders, pies made in the kitchen and a covered garden with heaters. It is ten minutes up from the tube, which is the point. Behind it comes a Young’s house on Parkway, a pub that rumbles when the trains go over, a garden the size of a car park and the back room where Madness played their first gig. Here is where we drink, and what to ask for.

Tapping the Admiral, 77 Castle Road, NW1

This corner pub sat shut for four years until the people who run the Pineapple in Kentish Town reopened it, and it has since been CAMRA North London’s Pub of the Year in 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2023. Eight cask beers are on at once, heavy on London breweries through the LocAle scheme, with up to four ciders on handpump. The bar is L-shaped, the stools are comfortable, and the food is traditional and home-made with pies the speciality. The quiz is on Wednesdays at 20:30 and there are traditional music sessions on Thursday evenings. It opens at noon every day and stays open to midnight Wednesday to Saturday. Children are welcome until 20:00.

The Spread Eagle, 141 Albert Street, NW1

The handiest good pint from Camden Town station, 300 metres up Parkway. The Spread Eagle is a Grade II listed Young’s house built out of a row of terraced houses on the corner of Albert Street, and it is wood panelled and calm in a way the High Street is not. London Original and London Special are the regulars, with a changing guest that is often Proper Job or Landlord. Food runs from noon to 22:00, there are two rooms upstairs called the Eyrie and the Snug, and dogs get biscuits. It opens at 11:00 Monday to Saturday.

The Hawley Arms, 2 Castlehaven Road, NW1

One big room with high ceilings, ceiling fans and tall gilt mirrors, right by the Stables end of the market. When the music drops you can hear the trains overhead. The Hawley Arms burned in the 2008 Camden fire, came back, and in 2019 the team fought for a year to buy the building rather than lose it to developers. There is cask on: London Pride, Harvey’s Sussex Best and Olde Trip on our last look at CAMRA’s list. The pub opens at noon and runs to midnight, 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, and tables are booked by phone only. Eat early: the kitchen shuts at 20:00 in the week.

The Edinboro Castle, 57 Mornington Terrace, NW1

The garden is the reason. The Edinboro Castle has a huge terrace with heaters and fairy lights running alongside the main line out of Euston, and inside one big room wrapped round a single bar. It was the very first meeting place of CAMRA’s North London branch. London Pride and Landlord are the regular casks, and on Mondays every tap beer is £1 off. Open noon to 23:00, 22:30 on Sundays. Our full run of gardens is in the Camden beer garden guide.

The Dublin Castle, 94 Parkway, NW1

By day an ordinary Irish-flavoured Victorian boozer with free table tennis from noon to 17:30 on weekdays. By night the back room is a gig venue with a door charge and DJs after the bands on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The Dublin Castle has a plaque over the door from Madness, who played their first gig here in 1979. It is open to 02:00 Thursday to Sunday, which makes it the obvious last stop on Parkway.

The Good Mixer, 30 Inverness Street, NW1

A 1950s working men’s pub that became the Britpop bands’ local and has not been tidied up much since. The Good Mixer is two dark bars, a pool table and a bar billiards table. Do not come for cask: the handpumps went in 2019. Come for a game and a lager at the bottom of Inverness Street, open to 01:00 in the week and 02:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.

The Lock Tavern, 35 Chalk Farm Road, NW1

Opposite the Stables Market, and now a McMullen’s pub since 2024. The Lock Tavern has a heated garden with a fire pit, a roof terrace that works in all weathers, a weekly quiz and a music programme. Food runs to 21:00 most days. It is open to 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Over the bridge in Primrose Hill

Cross the canal on Gloucester Avenue and the pubs get calmer. The Engineer at number 65 has Landlord and Adnams Broadside on the pumps, dining rooms named after Brunel and a large heated garden at the back. On Regent’s Park Road, The Queen’s has been pouring since 1854, now a Young’s pub with an upstairs dining room and terrace that look over the hill. Ask the bar for a takeaway serve if you are heading up to watch the sunset.

Before you go

• Cheapest good pint: the Edinboro Castle on a Monday, £1 off every tap.
• Latest: the Dublin Castle and the Good Mixer, both to 02:00 at weekends.
• Best for a group: the Lock Tavern garden or the Edinboro Castle terrace.
• Quiz nights: Tapping the Admiral on Wednesdays, the Lock Tavern weekly.

Hours change, so check the pub before a big night. For the pubs north of the railway bridge, from the Southampton Arms to the Pineapple, see our Kentish Town pub guide.