Bedford Arms, Finsbury Park, 1928

The Bedford Arms was at 93 Andover Road, at the corner with Victor Road, in the area between Fonthill and Hornsey Roads. This was a tough area which included Campbell Road (the so-called Campbell Bunk) that had the name for being one of the worst streets in London.

A few hundred yards to the west was an almost identical looking Charringtons pub, the Pooles Park Tavern.

The Bedford cropped up fairly regularly in the late Victorian and early Edwardian local press. Whilst some of the reports were of violence, in the main they related to meetings of very respectable sounding societies. 

Islington Gazette, 21 May 1908

The whole area was redeveloped after the war and all the Victorian buildings were demolished. A new Andover Street was laid out about a hundred yards north of the Victorian one. The site of the pub is now marked by the very end of the cul-de-sac Woodbridge Close.