LONDON CRAWLING
The Holly Bush And The Paradise Are Two Quintessential English Pubs By Sala Elise Patterson If you had to choose one aspect of London that encapsulates the city, the highest common denominator if you will, it would have to be the pub. A quintessentially English institution, pubs were actually brought to England by the quintessentially hedonist Romans over two thousand years ago. But it’s the English who have mastered the art of the “public house”. They are more than just watering holes; they are the heart of the community, the center of social activity and deal making, the neighborhood living room. What’s fun about pub-crawling in London is that each one is a world unto itself. There are some common characteristics (i.e., you can drink and sit down) but they range in shape and color almost as much as human kind. You walk into one and it seems like your stepping back in time; another and you’ll feel like you’ve walked into a fraternity house. If you want to grasp, in two stops, the breadth of options you should visit the Holly Bush, one of the cities oldest pubs, followed by the Paradise (official name the Paradise by Way of Kensal Green). The Holly Bush dates to the 1640s and is situated on a beautiful, quiet, tree-lined street in Hampstead, one of the city’s toniest neighborhoods. Two seconds from the bustling Hampstead high street, when you turn on to Holly Mount, you feel as if you have been transported into a small village in the middle of the English countryside. The pub is a series of wonky rooms with small, medium, large, round, square and rectangular wooden tables and chairs strewn about warped flooring with drafty wooden walls holding it all together. There is no mistaking that this pub is as it was four centuries ago: the etched glass windows, oak flooring, gas lamps and pressed tin ceiling and walls are all original. You’ll find it teeming with locals (who could just as easily be the neighborhood drunk as some famous musician) propping up the bar, laughing and talking a London breed of trash or huddling around the fireplace as if they had just blown in on horseback from the neighboring village. The pub has a great menu of typical English pub fare: meat pies, sausages and potatoes done with more refined palettes in mind. Upstairs is a posh, non-smoking dining room but the atmosphere is far more authentic on the lower level. At the other end of the spectrum but with, ironically, no less of a homey and genuine feel is The Paradise by Way of Kensal Green. The pub takes its name from a line in a G. K. Chesterton poem about an old English drunk and the lines are scribbled (elegantly, of course) across the bar. Entering the pub you get the impression of having wandered into Alice’s grown up Wonderland: the original wood paneled walls have been stripped and painted over in a light celadon green, the Victorian detailing preserved and spruced up and the overhead lighting done in what-- in your memory in any case-- will seem like lit candles, as opposed to dim light bulbs. The pub is only three rooms big: one room is dedicated to the main bar, one to the dining room and, the last, a small study-like room with couches and bookcases off the main bar. The entire place has whimsical and successful design flairs such as two plaster angel sculptures thrown in the corners and two massive urns on each end of the bar. The menu has a global orientation (read: anything goes) with a nod to the Asian. Whatever you order, it is guaranteed to be studied and delicious. The wine list, especially for a pub, is exceptional and the crowd, well heeled, well dressed and well-lived. The Paradise by Way of Kensal Green 19 Kilburn Lane, W10 4AE Kensal Green 020 8969 0098 The Holly Bush 22 Holly Mount, NW3 6SG Hampstead 020 7435 2892 hollybushpub.com |
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