Camden pub crawl: The best drinking route, from the World’s End to Amy Winehouse’s pub

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Jochan Embley7 March 2019

Camden is absolutely heaving with places to get a drink — which makes it the perfect place for a pub crawl.

This corner of north London is always a popular place for a night out, and is particularly well-suited to travelling from boozer to boozer – they're all close and all decent.

As such, we’ve drawn up a handy pub crawl route, snaking around the area and taking in 10 of Camden’s best loved pubs.

The route starts and finishes right by Camden Town Underground station, and none of the pubs should take longer than five minutes to walk between. We’ve even created an interactive map for you and your merry band of crawlers to follow along the way.

If you don’t want to visit every single boozer, then we’ve mentioned good places to call it a day, none of which are more than a five-minute walk from the nearest Tube stop.

Before we start, though, some housekeeping rules: while things are undoubtedly going to get rather jolly, respect your fellow drinkers and try not to be too rowdy while walking from place to place. Don't forget to keep topped up on water and stop off for some food when you can.

Formalities aside, there's only one thing left to say:

Ready, set, crawl!

The World’s End

Andre Leroux/Creative Commons

Head out of Camden Town station, do a quick loop around the building and behold: the first boozer. The World’s End is one of Camden’s most famous pubs, always a popular haunt but with enough space to deal with big crowds. It’s also sat above one of the city’s best known metal clubs, the Underworld.

What should we drink? Staropramen lager. The pub makes a big deal of the fact it gets the Czech beer delivered directly from the country and serves it from a specialist tank — so it would be rude not to.

174 Camden High Street, NW1 0NE

Quinn’s

Prepare yourself, crawlers, because this is the longest inter-pub walk on the route. Seeing as we’re only one pub deep by this point, though, it shouldn’t be a problem — and there’s a great pub waiting. Head north up Kentish Town Road, cross the canal and stop at Quinn’s. It’s a charming Irish boozer, with a family-run bar and a buzzing, but still fairly relaxed atmosphere. A perfect second pitstop.

What should we drink? It’s an Irish pub, so we do we really need to say? If you can’t stomach the stout, though, there’s a good selection of ales and some great bottles from the continent.

65 Kentish Town Road, NW1 8NY

The Hawley Arms

Step out of Quinn’s and head east along Hawley Road, make a leisurely left fork on Castlehaven Road and stroll into the Hawley Arms. It’s one of the most famous pubs in the area, a hotspot for the indie darlings of the mid 2000s and still hugely popular now. Camden-native Amy Winehouse was a regular and was even known to pull a few pints behind the bar. Things are known to get rather lively once the evening reaches its latter stages.

What should we drink? It’s a proper boozer, which means any of the on-tap options will serve you well. According to those in the know though, Winehouse’s favourite drink was the Rickstasy: three parts vodka, one part Baileys, one part Southern Comfort and one part banana liqueur. We wouldn’t strictly recommend it.

2 Castlehaven Road, NW1 8QU

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The Early Finish

The Lock Tavern

The Lock Tavern is our fourth pub and, if you’ve had a couple of drinks in the three previous boozers, it may work well as an early finishing point. For one, it’s only five minutes from Chalk Farm station, making for a speedy getaway, but it’s also a great late-night spot, with free DJ performances and live gigs at the weekend. Kicking out time is 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.

What should we drink? If you’re finishing the night here, you may as well have a boozy dessert in the form of Wild Beer Millionaire, a salted caramel chocolate milk stout. If this will push you over the edge, there are plenty of decent beers on draught, too.

35 Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AJ

The Ice Wharf

Still with us? Marvellous news, as there's a real treat next: not just a Spoons, but a riverside Wetherspoons. Walk back down Chalk Farm Road, onto Camden High Street, across the canal again and swing right in. It’s a massive place, with plenty of tables and booths to accommodate larger groups. If the weather’s decent, try to nab a spot outside and gaze upon Camden Lock as you drink.

What should we drink? A drink in a Spoons is always the cheapest in the area, so you may as well make the most of it and go for the most wallet-friendly pint available: Greene King IPA, costing a mere £2.59.

Units 1-2, Suffolk Wharf, 28 Jamestown Road, NW1 7BY

The Halfway House

The Elephants Head

Chris Whippet / The Elephant's Head / CC BY-SA 2.0

Six pubs into an 10-stop crawl and we're just past the halfway point. It would make a good spot to call it a night, right in the middle of Camden and only a couple of minutes’ walk to the Tube station. It’s always a busy place, owing to that central location, but there's usually space to squeeze in. The bar is a pretty sizeable one, too, which means service isn’t too slow.

What should we drink? The in-house ale, Elephants Head. It goes down a treat, not overly hoppy and with a slight sweetness to it.

224 Camden High Street, NW1 8QR

The Earl of Camden

It’s another fairly lengthy stroll here, down the high street, past the Tube station and right onto Parkway, a few minutes along to the Earl of Camden. It’s a big, airy building, offering up plenty of space to settle into, as well as a few tables outside for when the sun is shining. There are DJ nights on the weekend, providing some musical accompaniment to the crawl, with lots of TVs always showing the biggest sports events.

What should we drink? There’s a really strong range of craft beers here, as well as bottles from around the world that you might not have tried before. The joy is in making a spontaneous decision, so we’ll leave it to you with this one.

55 Parkway, NW1 7PN

The Dublin Castle (94 Parkway, NW1 7AN)

Ewan Munro/Creative Commons

The Dublin Castle is another of the most famous pubs in Camden — and we also named it one of the 50 best pubs in London. It’s a great spot for the latter stages of the crawl, with cheap and cheerful lager, a decent-sized pub room in the front and a club space at the back playing all the crowd-pleasing tunes. It was another one of Amy Winehouse’s favourite pubs, too.

What should we drink? It literally has the Irish capital in its name, so if you didn’t drink a Guinness back at Quinn’s, the time has now come.

The Edinboro Castle

Keep on heading down Parkway, take a left when you get to the junction, walk along Delancey street for a couple hundred yards and then dart off onto Mornington Terrace, where you’ll find the Edinboro Castle. This one is a particular delight during the summer, when the big beer terrace can be used to its full potential, but there’s a decent amount of space inside, too.

What should we drink? There’s the usual selection of ales and lagers here but, seeing as we’re in Camden and we haven’t had a something from Camden Town Brewery yet, go for a pint of Hells lager.

57 Mornington Terrace, NW1 7RU

The Finish Line

The Camden Head

Jackbeadle/Creative Common

Get back onto Delancey street, walk until the end of the road and there, at the intersection with the High Street, we have our final pub: the Camden Head. Firstly, congratulations — you’ve completed the route, which is no mean feat. Secondly, this a great spot to finish in, because it stays open until 3am. The Head also hosts stand-up nights — it’s not to be mixed up with the comedy pub of the same name over in Islington — although seeing as this is our 10th boozer, we’ll forgive any confusion. What’s more, it’s only a short stumble back to Camden Town tube station for the journey home. Sorted.

What should we drink? To be honest, if you’ve made it this far, you’re entitled to get whatever the hell you want.

100 Camden High Street, NW1 0LU

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