Two Brewers — Restaurant in London

🚇 Caledonian Road 🍺 £4.20 Fosters

A Locally Loved Community Boozer.

The Two Brewers is located in the backstreets of Barnsbury, close to Pentonville Prison in Islington. The nearest Tube is Caledonian Road, it’s a five minute walk to get here.

The pub dates from the mid 19th century. It was rebuilt at some point but it is not clear when, possibly 1930s. This was once a Watney Combe Reid boozer, you can still see the original lamps and signage on the exterior of the building.

Since 2018 there have been multiple plans to demolish and rebuild this pub as part of a new development. Generally, plans like this to reinstate a pub never happen, the locals have dug in and are fighting the good fight.

This is a two bar pub which has a central servery that serves the adjoining bars. The decor here is simple no frills and is painted grey like the outside. The right hand bar has a large fireplace at the back with a couple of photos of locals out on a Jolly. The left hand bar has a pool table, dartboard and Arsenal memorabilia, at the rear of the pub is a beer garden.

The beer line up was a straightforward selection of mainstream keg options popular with the locals. I decided on a pint of Fosters, my pint was decent enough, price point was very reasonable at just over four quid. This is a wet led pub that doesn’t serve food.

We arrived just after 1pm on cloudy Saturday afternoon in late December. There were a dozen or so locals in the left hand bar playing pool and watching the horse racing and footy. We sat in the right hand bar and watched the end of the Luton v Chelsea game. The atmosphere was chilled with the occasional crescendo of laughter from the banter in the other bar.

In researching The Two Brewers, it is clear there is a fear that the locals will lose their beloved pub. As well as being a staunch Arsenal boozer, this is a community pub that is popular with the local older generation and offers an important social hub. I hope this pub gets the backing of the local council and is around for many years to come.

ℹ️ Info correct on...

Proper old school pub with a warm welcome, good service and friendly locals. Great pint of Guinness at a reasonable price. Selection of lagers but no ales. I'll let them off that as it's a brilliant place to watch The Arsenal on TV too. Pubs like they used to be. Highly...

Friendly staff. Lively atmosphere and serene atmosphere at times. Lived upstairs and came as a stranger, Amazing staff and heart warming welcome by the regular people. Recommended if you want to experience actual Arsenal fan club and true london...