Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Hornsey Rise (Other Side of Crouch End Hill), c1905
This is one of the views in the environs of N8 where the landscape has changed completely over the past hundred years. On this site (below the BP petrol station at the top of Crouch End Hill) now stands the Hornsey Rise medical centre.
The pub which was rebuilt in the first half of the twentieth was demolished circa 1995. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it was a very busy omnibus terminus for buses running from the Royal Exchange in the City. You can see the omnibuses lined up outside the pub in the picture.
The pub was also the venue where singer Matt Munroe made his first appearances in the 1950s after his shifts as a London bus driver.
At the time this photo was taken, just to the north west of this junction there stood, the Alexandra Orphanage, the Aged Pilgrims Asylum and the St Mary Islington Workhouse.
By the second half of the twentieth century, the Volunteer public house on Queensland Road N19 had been renamed and was also called "The Favourite". Both were hosts to the Irish music scene and to differentiate between the two, the Hornsey Rise establishment was nicknamed 'The Big Favourite'. The Queensland Road pub was referred to as 'The Little Favourite'. With the latter having been demolished during the construction of the Emirates Stadium, neither pub still exists.
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Comment by Richard Woods on September 11, 2024 at 14:45
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There was nothing 'popular' about Watneys beer - the party seven was just the cheapest way to take a decent amount of booze to a bring-your-own party! The beer was p+ss water.
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Comment by Les G on September 11, 2024 at 21:25
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Don't remember Red Barrel. Only served in two London pubs around that time but the only 'popular' draught drinks were Fosters and Guinness. Any other draught beers were mostly taken as Light & Lager or Light & Bitter. The beer wasn't great, but the 'quality control', or lack of it, didn't help either with the mixing gases and stuff - you could barely get a head on a pint in those days. One trick the regulars had was to put a tiny drop of Guinness into a pint of draught beer so it would foam-up just enough to give a decent head. Things have improved immensely since then.
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No idea where you did you drinking. I had a choice between Watneys (never), Ind Coope, Tollemache, Fullers, Youngs, Whitbread, Scottish and Newcastle, Bass Charrington, Allied Breweries, Courage and more. Even the excellent Marstons!
Of these most in the 60s and 70s were brewing rubbish it must be said. I tolerated Courage Directors and Bass. Scottish and Newcastle was good when you could get it. My preference in bottle if I could get it and pour it myself was Worthington white shield.
But of course the difference between southern taste and northern was apparent; we liked a head on our pint! And the argument about that head carried into the draught Guinness where eventually the 'froth' was legally counted as beer!
Bitter top - Guinness or lager - was popular. Two kinds of shandy pleased the sports brigade - one with lemonade and, my preference, with ginger beer.
Of course today we are spoilt thanks to CAMRA of which I was member number 12 in my days on the Evening Standard when Paul Foot, Mike Hardman, Ian LeVac and others were among the founding members. They beat off the march of the big combines and today were are back to really well made and highly variable craft beers. I doubt we have topped the 43 breweries that once served Norwich but I bet we are not far off!
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Unfortunately Richard, I also have no idea where I did my drinking! I was led astray by some of the same people I was serving, but it's all a happy blur!
I do recognise most of the brand names you have listed. 'Holsten' is another draught and bottled lager I recall having served in the pub.
I also recall, or did I just imagine, that the brewery delivery men were entitled to a drink per each pub delivery. Hard to believe now if correct, especially if the driver was also entitled to the same!
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Holsten! And Harp and Stella and more - I hated lager so never ventured that way.
Judging by some of the brewery vehicles I encountered you may have discovered the cause!
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Harp! Had forgotten that one. Never took to lager myself. Started out on Black & Tan and stuck with the 'Heavy'!
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Comment by Hugh on September 14, 2024 at 0:26
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Harp, I seem to remember in the 1980s that Harp "stayed to the bottom of the glass".
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LOL! Good one Hugh! I remember that one!
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But what did it mean? It always sounded right, but why would we want our beer to be sharp rather than, say, blunt?
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It's the rhyme. What rhymes with blunt... be careful!
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