Arsenal Pubs

The World's End 21-23 Stroud Green Road, 0171 281 8679
Cheapest pint of lager: Foster's �2.20.
Ladies' toilet: spacious, reasonably well looked after.
Food: No
Where is it: Stroud Green Road
Aggro factor: Usually placid.
Sky: Two or three small screens.
Other: local bands some nights

A sign on the door says: 'No dogs, nuclear weapons, unusual pets'. That sets the tone for this fairly pricey middle-class hang-out. It has high vault-like ceilings, round wooden tables and rickety chairs, a jukebox and several arcade games. The place has plenty of Arse shirts in it before and after games, but has a stage that sometimes features tedious local bands on Saturday evenings, which inevitably means the Arsenal atmosphere is shot to buggery.

Nice in summer with lots of trestle tables and benches outside. Before the 97 general election there was a hoarding nearby where half one poster had been torn off so it read: 'Labour's Pledge: three kinds of bristle for every kind of tooth', but that's not important right now.

The pub's on a corner, so there are big windows on two sides. The bar is in the round. Service is usually comparatively quick. It's full on matchdays but not heaving. A fair walk from the ground.

The Blackstock
Cheapest pint of lager: Foster's �2.00
Ladies' toilet: horrible.
Food: yes, the basics
Where is it: corner of Blackstock and Seven Sisters Road
Aggro factor: 'Looked good while Barnsley was one up against Man U, but what pub wouldn't?'
Sky: Big screen for big matches
Other: mainly for locals

Didn't see many Arse shirts in here and assumed it wasn't a Gooner pub, then the whole place exploded when Barnsley scored against Manure and everyone started singing 'Schmeichel takes it...'

If it's possible to use the phrase 'town and gown' about football, this is a 'town' pub. I'd guess from one visit that the people are mostly locals not passing trade. There's a big screen for big matches, a pool table (covered match days) and a dingy food counter. Service was quick enough, though I was served by a young bloke who thought that he was clever. Ladies' was nasty: small and grotty, no loo seats or paper. The carpet outside the Gents didn't smell great either.

It's a fairly large pub with the bar in the round. Two not over-bright blokes grabbed my A-Z off me when they saw me making notes in it, and deciphered my comments, which was embarrassing, but then they found another scribble saying 'Ian Walker: shit', which made them instant friends. That kind of place.

Finsbury Park Tavern 0181 809 0192
Cheapest pint of lager: Carlsberg/Castlemaine �1.90
Ladies' toilet: not great.
Food: not so's you'd notice
Where is it? Corner of Station Place and Seven Sisters Road.
Aggro factor: potentially niggly
Sky: big screen for big matches
Other: benches outside where you can talk to passing nutters

It's near the Tube and BR so you see a fair number of away shirts on the wooden benches outside this unspecial pub. There's a pool table, which is covered on match days.

There's not a lot wrong with the Tavern but it's hard to find anything very positive to say. It's not that large, so it's a pub more for standing around in than sitting at a table in a group. Fairly grotty decor; grubby carpet, long heavy curtains drawn against the light when Sky's on.

There are tables outside which is nice in hot weather but you're right next to the main road and the passing nutters, who are legion. A mad tramp once threw a pint glass in the general direction of my party when we were sitting outside and one of us asked him to stop feeling my mate's bottom. But he was a crap shot and it just smashed on the pavement. Service is OK. Um, it's opposite a Nat West cashpoint. Um... that's it. Oh, and it's close to the Park proper, so it'd be packed when there's a concert on.

Arsenal Tavern
Cheapest pint of lager: Fosters �1.85
Ladies' toilet: huge, mad, grotty, loo rolls hanging on massive loops of chain .
Food: don't think so - that was hardly the point
Where is it: halfway down Blackstock Road on the non-stadium side
Aggro factor: Be sensible
Sky: Big screen for big matches
Other: Enormous, open till 2.00am Thurs Fri Sat, two pool tables

I'd heard so much shit about this place that I wasn't going to go in, but did in the end, and fell in love with it. It has a bad reputation which may be a hangover from previous management. Apparently some of the nastier football followers did frequent it at one point but seem to have taken their business elsewhere. So I'd recommend sensible behaviour as I would anywhere, but as a female not looking for a fight I thought it was fine in the early evening.

If you like light-filled, trendy minimalist pubs with pine floors, this isn't the place for you. It's like the attic of your mad potentially violent Grandma. It's huge, with two pool tables out the back and a Ladies you could get lost in. There are millions of cosy chairs with wooden arms and padded seats with the stuffing falling out, the carpet smells of Southern Comfort and fag burns and there's a bicycle over one door and what seems to be a stuffed lynx over the other. Other items such as sewing machines and ancient pianos are strewn around haphazardly. It was a bit like an old fashioned cinema for the Man U Barnsley FA Cup first leg, with everyone pulling their comfy seats round the big screen.

It's open till 2.00am Thurs, Fri and Sat, with discos and pool tournaments. It looks like it's got a high proportion of local regulars. It might be a good deal more threatening at the arse end of the evening; it was only six-ish when I was there. The guy who served me was young and pretty and didn't speak English as a first language; his one brain cell struggled to understand that I was asking the price of lager but didn't want to drink any.

The pub also contained an Alsatian in an Arsenal scarf and a plaque that said: 'The Total Abstinence Society meets here on Saturday nights'. I think that was definitely a joke.

The Bank of Friendship
Blackstock Road, Unlisted number
Cheapest pint of lager: �1.85 Fosters
Ladies' toilet: Just the one cubicle but in reasonable nick
Food: No
Where is it: Blackstock Road not far from the ground. Leave at twenty to for a kick off on the hour.
Aggro factor: Low
Sky: Yes
Other: Gorgeous little garden out the back

Nice pub this. If the Arsenal Tavern looks like the home of your mad granny in the attic, this is the home of Cosy Granny who bakes scones. A comfy corner table runs round the angle of the walls as you walk in, there's a fireplace and a really pretty well-kept pub garden with tables out the back. It's got proper carpet - coo, posh or what. The main drawback is that it's pretty small.

The crowd is mixed. A glass case gun display thingy over the fireplace says Purdey, which is nice - though I hate it when people spell my name wrong as a rule.

The word is that the outdoors pub bit in Fever Pitch was filmed here. I actually think it was somewhere else but that's what this pub garden looks like. A lovely one for sunny pre-game sessions in May or August.

People who go here as regulars tend to be quite passionate about it, so it must have that little something.

The Highbury Barn
Highbury Grove, 0171 226 2383
Cheapest pint of lager: �1.90 Heineken
Ladies' toilet: There's an upstairs and a downstairs, neither pretty but
both functional.
Food: Yes; decent selection of burgers, lasagne, haddock pie and stuff.
Where is it: Just after Blackstock Road turns into Highbury Grove. Leave at
twenty-five to 3 for 3pm kickoff.
Aggro factor: Usually fine, with the occasional whoops
Sky: Several screens.
Other: pool table, comedy night on Thurs.

It's a large pub, the bar staff wear Arse shirts and there's usually a great atmosphere on matchdays. Best of all, there was even a good atmosphere after horrible home defeats like Blackburn and Liverpool, making it easier to recover and pull yourself back together. They have Sky and usually have a big roll-down screen for away games.

There's a homely, fun atmosphere as a rule, with a lot of regulars. Bar staff can occasionally be rude but most are nice. A big courtyard outside with picnic tables is a great place to congregate before summer games.

The police keep a close eye and closed the pub early before the Birmingham City Coca Cola one, where the casual scum element came up for the tickets that were, unusually, available on the night. The recent Highbury stabbing also occurred just outside the Barn. But these events are very unrepresentative of what's an easygoing, friendly place 90 per cent of the time.

It has two pool tables, but they're covered on matchdays as in most places. There's a vast choice on the jukebox.

The Gunners
Blackstock Road. 0171 226 3487
Cheapest pint of lager: �2.00 Carlsberg
Ladies' toilet: Two loos, which may or may not have seats or paper
Food: No
Where is it: Blackstock Road not far from the ground. Leave at twenty to for a kick off on the hour.
Aggro factor: Not bad
Sky: Yes
Other: Heavy-duty Arsenal tourism, with walls papered with old programmes and shirts, and Arsenal songs on the jukebox

This is a large, packed pub that's an Arsenal tourist shrine. Arsenal gear all over the walls and Arsenal songs on the jukebox. It's probably just a feeling, but when I've been there I've felt it was more of a favourite with Irish gooners and other people who don't live in the area, rather than a regular hangout for the N5 original article.

The long and the short of it is, if you're making your first trip in yonks and it's a bit of a pilgrimage, this is the pub to go to.

The tables, chairs and floor shout: 'We expect to have beer spilled on us by a noisy crowd.' It can take a while to get served straight after a game - hell, it can be hard to find space to stand. There's always some people outside on the pavement even in the winter. The odd beer glass often gets dropped out there in the excitement. There's a hotdog stand just nearby.

Source:     http://www.arsenal-world.net/arsenalpubs.htm