Review

A sign on the door of The Gaslight requests customers wipe their feet before entering, in an attempt to keep this recently refurbished pub looking like a recently refurbished pub. So far so good, to the extent that you can still smell newly cut wood, but that’s not entirely surprising given the forest-endangering amount of the stuff being used here.

A wooden backed bench runs two thirds of the way around the wall of the pub; a cushion as hard as Russian bread on the seat and no cushion at all on the wooden back, makes it about as comfortable as a nun in an Anne Summers shop. There’s one way to keep your furniture looking new, make it so uncomfortable that no one wants to use it. The rest of the tables and chairs have obviously survived from the pub’s pre-refurb existence, because they now look old, knackered and out of place. To prevent the newly painted walls from looking to bare, numerous promotional drinks posters decorate them, placed at jaunty angles for that added sense of fun

One of the posters suggests that The Gaslight is a great place “to meet and make friends”. The first part of that is certainly true, because the pub is opposite Finsbury Park Station, but it’s not really the kind of pub people are likely to hang around in, as it lacks any discernable character and anything in the way of entertainment, apart from a single fruit machine. Given the transient nature of the crowd, it’s unlikely that anyone will be hanging around long enough to see the second part of that statement come true. If this pub has one redeeming feature, it’s that it does have a quality barmaid.

Review by AJS