The Dublin Castle on Parkway: how the back room works

The short version: the Dublin Castle is a pub with a live room out the back at 94 Parkway, NW1 7AN. Doors are usually 19:15 (19:00 on some free nights). Typical band-night entry on the door is £10 to £15, with some nights free and a few at £20. Check the pub's own site before you go, because bills change.

How the place works

The pub is at the front. The music is in a separate room at the back. You can have a pint in the pub and wander through when the first band starts. The venue is a few minutes' walk from Camden Town Tube, and Time Out also lists Camden Road Overground.

Wikipedia says live music runs Wednesday to Sunday, but the pub's own listings also carry Monday and Tuesday shows, so call it most nights. A Monday open mic has been listed at doors 19:15, free. Expect two to four acts on a normal bill. The venue's promoter copy talks about four bands every night, but the official listings show fewer, so plan on a few sets rather than a marathon.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday the pub's listings say there are DJs after the bands. The site also advertises cheap drinks before 18:00, and a flyer gives a discount to see the bands. Those are the details to look for on the site before you set off.

What you will pay

The pub's listings show these door prices:

• Free: an open mic night and an EMOM night.
• £10: typical Friday and Sunday band nights.
• £12: a Tuesday night and several Fridays.
• £15: tribute and ska nights, including an Alice In Chains tribute, Bim Ska La Bim and The Jam vs The Clash.
• £20: a Jeff Slate and Friends night, the top of the range.

Showcase nights from Camden Live (CMDN) have been sold as £10 e-tickets. Tickets are sold through See Tickets, Skiddle and Songkick as well as the pub. Our advice: if you are going for the support acts, get in at doors, not at headline time. Prices and dates move, so treat the above as a guide to the range and check the live listing.

The room

List.co.uk describes a proper pub atmosphere, a loud PA and a real dancefloor, and quotes comedian Phil Jupitus calling the room “full of mojo”. A Tripadvisor summary puts the back-room capacity at roughly 200, an unverified figure, so assume it fills up on a popular night. Time Out called the back room rowdy and beer-sloshing back in 2017, which is a fair warning to wear shoes you do not love.

Who played here first

The strongest claim is Madness. Wikipedia says they first tried to get a gig here in late 1978, when they were still the Camden Invaders, and first played on 16 January 1979. Landlord Alo Conlon later told NME that seven young men said they were a jazz band, and the following Friday skinheads turned up. A PRS for Music Heritage Award plaque marked that first gig on 27 January 2017.

Beyond that, treat the roll call with care. Wikipedia says the pub was often the first major London gig for bands that went on to success in the 1990s, including Blur. That is not the same as a first ever gig. Time Out names Blur, Madness and The Killers as bands that played early here. Camden Live says the Libertines had some of their earliest gigs in the pub and returned later for a residency it calls messy.

Amy Winehouse was a regular rather than a first gig act. The Camden New Journal says she played a secret homecoming show in the back room in 2007, after Back To Black.

A little history

The pub is family-run, according to Time Out and Bandsintown. Alo Conlon, from County Mayo, turned it into a music venue in 1979, according to NME. Wikipedia says the Roundhouse, Dingwalls and the Electric Ballroom had already raised interest in live music in the area. Time Out reported that Suggs of Madness still turns up and pours drinks behind the bar, though that was in 2017.

Do not mix it up

This is the Dublin Castle on Parkway, NW1, not Dublin Castle in Ireland. Look for the Parkway address, and for the pub's own site at thedublincastle.com. For the history, the Wikipedia entry is the place to start, and Time Out's feature on the pub gives the flavour of the back room.