Natural wine bar · Chalk Farm
Tilt the Cask
A six-seat room above a laundrette. The orange wine list is genuinely serious.
CAMDEN BARS
Issue No. 412 · Tonight in Camden
Thursday edition · Updated 9:42pm
A weekly paper for Camden drinkers
Where to drink tonight, ranked by the people who live above the lock.
Camden Bars is the only locally-edited, always-current index of every drinkable spot in Camden Town — from 200-year-old canal-side pubs to basement cocktail dens — curated by six editors who walk home from the tube every night.
Right now, in Camden — live busyness
The Hawley Arms 96% full
Draft House Camden 88% full
Fifty Cocktail Bar 81% full
Right now, in Camden
The three busiest venues tonight — last refreshed 60 seconds ago.
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01Old-man pub · Camden Lock
The Hawley Arms
The room Camden was built around. Still pourable, still rowdy, still ours.
96% full · 18 min wait for a round
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02Beer hall · Chalk Farm
Draft House Camden
Forty taps, a single long bench, and the loudest front room on the high street.
88% full · 9 min wait for a round
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03Cocktail den · Kentish Town
Fifty Cocktail Bar
Basement-only, ten seats, a list that changes every fortnight. Book or miss it.
81% full · seats free at the bar
The Weekly Shortlist
This week in Camden, ranked.
Our six local editors revisit every venue at least once every 90 days. These four earned their place this week — no paid placements, no venue-owner weighting, just the verdict from people who live above the lock.
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01
Canal-side pub · Camden Lock
The Hawley Arms
Two decades on, still the only Camden pub that feels like a Camden pub. Order the Camden Pale, stand near the door, stay an hour.
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02
Beer hall · Chalk Farm
Draft House Camden
Forty keg lines, a single shared bench, and the kind of playlist that makes strangers start talking by the second pint.
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03
Cocktail den · Kentish Town
Fifty Cocktail Bar
Ten seats, no reservations on weekends, a list rebuilt every fortnight. The bar Camden cocktail heads actually argue about.
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04
Late-night room · Camden Town
The Blues Kitchen Camden
Live band on a Wednesday, two-for-one bourbon on a Sunday, and a back room that doesn't empty before 2am. Pick your night, pick your poison.
Re-reviewed this month
The canal-side pub that started it all.
Our editors grew up drinking under its low ceiling. Its two former landlords founded this paper. So we revisited it on a wet Tuesday in October with a clipboard, a notebook and low expectations — and left an hour later convinced that, for one room in one postcode, the hype is still earned.
The Camden Pale is still £5.80 a pint, still poured a little short, still the best starter in the borough. The fireplace is the same fireplace. The dog behind the bar is, we are told, the granddaughter of the dog behind the bar in 2017. What has changed: the food menu, which now does a genuinely excellent toastie; the jukebox, which has stopped playing Wonderwall; and the queue, which forms about an hour earlier than it did when we last visited in July.
Fresh sheet
New this season in Chalk Farm, Kentish Town and the lock.
Four doors that opened this autumn. We have been to all four. Two are worth your weekend.
Cocktail den · Kentish Town
Laylow
A basement, a short list, and a bartender who actually wants to talk to you.
Canal-side · Camden Lock
Pintxos on the Lock
Basque small plates, three local casks, and the only towpath terrace we have liked this year.
Listening room · Camden Town
Side B
A whisky list, a record player and a single rule: shut up and listen.
Pick your night
Cocktail dens · Old-man pubs · Late-night rooms · On the canal.
Four ways into the directory. Self-select, then let the busyness meter do the rest.
42 venues
Cocktail dens
Basement rooms, ten-seat bars, and the bartenders Camden cocktail heads argue about.
Browse the list →
87 venues
Old-man pubs
Hand-pulled casks, dog behind the bar, no music after 9pm. The original Camden.
Browse the list →
63 venues
Late-night rooms
Open past midnight, open past 2am, open past your better judgment. Ranked by closing time.
Browse the list →
19 venues
On the canal
Towpath terraces, lock-side benches, and the only pubs in Camden with their own mooring.
Browse the list →