Where to drink tonight, ranked by the people who live above the lock.
Every Thursday morning, our six Camden-based editors send one short, opinionated list of the bars, pubs and late-night rooms worth your night — sorted by mood, not marketing spend.
Free every Thursday. Unsubscribe in one click. We never share your address.
- The Hawley Arms● Lively
- Lock 17● Filling
- The Cobden Arms● Quiet
A newsletter with a real Camden-sized audience.
No bought lists, no dodgy embeds — just readers who actually live, work and drink in NW1, NW3 and NW5.
- 90,000+ Monthly readers across the site Verified via Similarweb, Q1 2024
- 47% Average newsletter open rate 3.1× the hospitality-media industry average
- 62% Readers living in NW1, NW3 or NW5 The postcodes behind every postcode-checked recommendation
- 247 Venues reviewed and re-visited every 90 days Covering Camden Town, Chalk Farm and Kentish Town
A peek at last Thursday's email.
No 4,000-word essay. No recycled press releases. One short editorial front, three named bar write-ups, a canny-not-stuffy drinks pick, and the live busyness meter for the weekend ahead.
- 01The Lock-In. Why the team spent Wednesday at The Hawley Arms instead of finishing the issue.
- 02Three rooms for a quiet pint. Including a new canal-side addition none of the chains have noticed.
- 03The Cocktail Den of the Week. A basement bar above Camden Town tube with a £10 martini that actually tastes like one.
- 04Busyness meter, weekend edition. When to walk in, when to turn around.
Four things in every issue. Always the same. Always short.
The format has stayed roughly the same since Issue 1 in 2017 — because readers told us they want the same dependable read every week, not a redesign in their inbox.
-
01
The Lock-In
A 200-word editor's letter on what's actually shifting in Camden this week — a closure, a quiet reopening, a new landlord we want to hear from.
-
02
Three Pubs, One Cocktail Den
Four short, opinionated venue write-ups. No star ratings, no ranking. Each picked by a named editor who walked in that week.
-
03
The Drink of the Week
A single pour from a single bar — usually under £10, usually available all week, sometimes a 1970s Highball revival we cannot stop drinking.
-
04
Busyness Meter
A weekend lookahead from our 18,400+ weekly anonymised check-ins. When to turn up, when to give it twenty minutes.
We don't write the newsletter for tourists, and we don't write it for every venue in London. We write it for the people who actually have to decide, by 7pm on a Thursday, where they're going to stand with a pint for the next three hours. That's the only brief.
Recent issues, in case you'd like a look first.
Every back issue since 2017 is on file. Pick one to see exactly how the email reads.
- 412 Thu 12 Sep 2024 The Hawley Arms, Lock 17, the £10 martini above the tube Read →
- 411 Thu 5 Sep 2024 A new canal-side opening, plus three pubs that survived August Read →
- 410 Thu 29 Aug 2024 Late rooms for the bank holiday, ranked by how loud the DJ gets Read →
- 409 Thu 22 Aug 2024 The quiet pubs of Chalk Farm, and a negroni we cannot quit Read →