Regents Park pubs
The Cape of Good Hope, 78 Albany Street, NW1 4EE
A squat wood and brick shoebox, brutalist architecture without the imagination, it warns you to stay away in the way that brightly coloured poisonous toads do. Stupidly, I went in anyway. The interior was filled with furniture stolen from other pubs, beneath which a gut-wrenchingly psychedelic carpet mouldered horribly. The carpet even had a picture of a dartboard on it, below the actual dartboard, presumably for people who are too drunk to throw pointy objects as far as the wall. The only other two people in the pub were complaining about sausages. Just don't do it
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Sept 2003
Telephone: 020 7388 6826
Nearest station: Great Portland Street, Zone 1 (360 metres)
The Chester Arms, 87 Albany Street, NW1 4BT
A pub of good taste, although not as exciting on the inside as it appears from without. Pretty ordinary in fact, a normal sort of everyday boozer that just happens to be plonked at the back of Regent's Park terrace. Worth stopping for a quick drink, and the bar staff are very nice, but beyond that...
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Sept 2003
Telephone: 020 7681 6017
Nearest station: Regents Park, Zone 1 (400 metres)
The Queen's Head and Artichoke, 30-32 Albany Street, NW1 4EA
Rewind fifteen years and this pub was in a battle royale with the nearby Cape of Good Hope for the title of worst pub in London. Each sought to outdo the other with awesome combinations of formica tables, cracked ceilings, hideous carpets and startling levels of neglect. Several years ago, the QHA made the break, gaining new owners keen to exploit the denizens of John Nash’s Regent’s Park terraces, rather than the estates sitting behind them. The pub, inheritor of a title that goes back some 400 years, still retains the mottled glass windows from its previous incarnation, but everything else has changed. Gone is the dingy, life-sapping interior, to be replaced with light wooden fittings, traditionally crafted and well put together. Gone are the malevolent staff, to be replaced by a combination of sweetness and light that comes with knowing the food and drink served is excellent. And in truth it is: on the expensive side, yes, but a mention in the Michelin guide doesn’t come for nothing, and the combination of modern English and tapas has been well thought through. The two or three real ales on tap is also a thoughtful concession after its Fosters on Formica years. Whilst I find it difficult to condone the way the refit has led to the wholesale rejection of its former clientele, this nevertheless is the best pub of the little run just behind Regent’s Park.
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Nov 2008
Telephone: 020 7916 6206
Nearest station: Great Portland Street, Zone 1 (250 metres)
The Victory, 150 Albany Street, NW1 4BX
This is a good local pub with good screns for TV sport, but it does not have a listed telephone number. The number given on this and other search sites -- 020 7388 9985 -- is wrong. The family who have that number told me they are often bothered by calls intended for the pub. Let's give them a break!
Reviewed by Fred Anderson, Dec 2009
Looking alarmingly like a building from a concentration camp, the Victory boasts pool and darts and does a far better job catering for the local community than the Queen’s Head and Artichoke further down the road.
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Nov 2008
Nearest station: Great Portland Street, Zone 1 (610 metres)
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