Pubs around the Ham & High patch have been featured in the Campaign for Real Ale's Good Beer Guide 2025 as selling the best pints.
The Campaign For Real Ale (Camra) yesterday published its annual roundup of the watering holes most likely to serve you a great pint.
Founded in 1971, the campaign represents beer drinkers and pub-goers across the UK, promoting quality real ale, cider and perry and supporting and encouraging the beer and pub trade.
The Good Beer Guide 2025 serves as a compass to find the perfect places to savour a well kept, well poured beer across the UK.
We are sharing with readers, and pub fans, the 11 best across the Ham & High patch in areas including Hampstead and Highgate, Gospel Oak and Kentish Town and Crouch End and Muswell Hill.
HAMPSTEAD
The Holly Bush - Holly Mount
Nestled in the heart of Hampstead, this Grade II-listed pub which is more than 200 years old and has a traditional open fire is rated by Camra as having a nationally important interior.
The pub's character was retained following a refurbishment some 10 years ago which kept the main bar, opened up rooms at the back and created a dining room upstairs.
The Magdala - South Hill Park, South End Green
This infamous pub dates back to 1885 and commemorates Lord Napier of Magdala.
It closed in February 2016 with unsuccessful planning applications submitted to turn it into flats but reopened in 2019 with a new landlord.
The pub is notorious for being where Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in England, shot her lover to death on Easter Sunday 1955.
Alleged bullet marks on the façade are not authentic, but it doesn't stop tourists coming.
The Old White Bear - Well Road
Now run by Northern Union Pubs, this pub had been closed for nearly eight years until it was saved after prolonged campaign by locals and Camra.
Reopened in 2021, the interior was similar, with the bar retained in the middle and fire places in the side rooms.
The Spaniards Inn - Spaniards Road
The highly popular Grade II-listed Spaniards Inn is recognised by Camra as having a historic interior.
Built in 1855 by two Spanish brothers, it features wooden beams and low ceilings, has a large beer garden and a wide selection of authentic seasonal dishes.
HIGHGATE
The Crown - Highgate High Street
Formerly the Rose & Crown, it was replaced by bakery Le Pain Quotidien for many years but reopened as a pub in June 2023.
It is part of the Northern Union company chain of previously closed and now reinvigorated pubs and has a beer garden at the back.
There is occasional live music and a quiz night on Wednesdays.
The Wrestlers - North Road
Identified by Camra as having a nationally important historic pub interior, it was first built in 1547 and last rebuilt in 1921.
Its original fireplace, wooden furniture and stained glass windows have survived the test of time.
The ancient ceremony of ‘swearing on the horns’, which dates back to 1623, takes place twice yearly in March and August. The oath was traditionally given to visitors at various pubs in Highgate during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
GOSPEL OAK
Southampton Arms - Highgate Road
Voted Camra's Cider Pub of the Year 2024, this independent pub has 14 handpumps serving almost equal numbers of ciders and beers from microbreweries across the UK.
Snacks include roast pork, cheese or meat baps, pork pies and veggie options, music is played on vinyl and the piano is popular.
Refurbished in 2018, Camra has identified it as having a nationally important historic pub interior. There is also a small patio garden at the back.
The Gipsy Queen - Malden Road
Since reopening in 2015, considerable effort has been successfully made to transform this pub and engage with its customers, with a a take-away bottle/jug shop service on offer.
The garden at the back offers booth seating, is heated and also has a big TV screen.
The kitchen rotates its food residencies every four months.
KENTISH TOWN
The Pineapple - Leverton Street
Another Grade II-listed pub, the Pineapple is identified in Camra's guide as having a nationally important historic pub interior, notable for its mirrors and splendid bar-back.
Built in 1868 by Philip Luzmore, the pub was threatened with closure in 2002, but a successful campaign was launched to save it.
It has a friendly front bar, with comfortable seating around tables, and a conservatory overlooking the patio garden.
CROUCH END
Small Beer - Topsfield Parade, Tottenham Lane
This pub is a "cross between a brewery tap house and a rustic cocktail bar" says Camra's guide, which lists brick walls, wood floor, rustic tables and chairs and techno background music "that is not overly intrusive".
The pub has an "inviting atmosphere" and for a while was named after Henry Reader Williams (1822-97), in whose honour the nearby clock tower was built.
MUSWELL HILL
Mossy Well - Muswell Hill Broadway
A former Express Dairies tearoom and milk depot but a pub since 1984 and reopened by Wetherspoon in 2015, its name derives from the etymology of Muswell.
In 2023 the pub was awarded a platinum plus rating in the JD Wetherspoon chain's Loo of the Year Awards
In the same year it was awarded a five-star rating by Haringey Council’s inspectors for its hygiene.
Full reviews of 4,516 pubs across the UK are available in the guide.
Now in its 52nd edition, this year's copy is available with covers featuring either Coronation Street’s Rovers Return Inn, and Emmerdale’s Woolpack.
Camra's Good Beer Guide 2025 is available for £16.99 from https://shop1.camra.org.uk/product/the-good-beer-guide-2025/ and booksellers nationwide.
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