19/08/23 - A Couple of Ticks in Kings Cross

The Curse of Pub Ticking:  Another contender for my favourite London Pub

The Good Beer Guide takes me to an absolute delightful pub... bizarrely one never visited before. Pentonville's King Charles I is in the correct part of a town for a Northern based beer tourist. Yet, somehow, this gem has sailed under the radar. I won't be a stranger going forward.

Spilling out in London

Don't tell Soho's Coach and Horses (or Smithfields Hand and Shears) but I may have a new favourite.

In common with those pubs, The King Charles I feels like a locals pub. A selection of characters on a Saturday afternoon that provide perfect entertainment for those who can discreetly people watch. 

A high stool at the bar, the best seat in the house.

Eyes Front - Southwark Brewery Vista - A Single Hopped American Pale Ale

The History (A rare feel good pub story)

The pub was rebuilt in the 1930s and was originally called the Craic House. It was a popular spot for locals and was known for its friendly atmosphere and its live music.

In 2015, the pub was put up for sale and faced the threat of being turned into flats. However, a group of local residents and pub enthusiasts banded together to raise money to buy the pub and keep it open. They formed a community benefit society called Ale Purveyors Limited and successfully purchased the leasehold in 2016.

In 2019, the pub was listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). This means that it is considered to be an important asset to the local community and that the community has the right to be consulted if the pub is ever put up for sale again.

How lovely to see a tragic story so often told having a happy ending.  And I love the blurb from their website.

A vital part of the Kings Cross community, we also welcome visitors from further afield to our down-to earth boozer, which is mercifully still thriving in a rapidly gentrifying area. 

Today's Visit

This is one of those pubs that I felt instantly at home. Could have been the wood panelling. Might have been the walls mounted with nick nacks - from the intricate to the stuffed animal heads. The juke box definitely played a part. The beer quality and choice was taken for granted with its bible recommendation.

I'm not a fan of signs banning things in pubs but a single placard proclaiming "No Racists, No Sexists and No Fascists" should replace "Live, Laugh, Love" in home furnishing departments.

View from a High Stool

What the chaps in the first photo would have seen if I was the invisible man

But is the people that make pubs. In the space of an hour, I was included in three conversations. One about beer - expected. One about football - standard. One containing details that I would not have told a priest in the confines of a latticed confessional.

I left with a warm feeling of having been entertained and worthy of trust with another's problems.

But there was work to be done.

You can't be classed a pub ticker until you've had Fullers ESB in a busy railway station.

Damn, I forgot my drinking mascot