• Added: 11th of December 2007
• Area: Kings Cross
• Category: Bars and Pubs

London N1 9NL
020 7427 2540

ross said
A drink on 3 levels but missed if you blink
Hidden, in the sense unless you know what's behind the windows you wouldn't give it a glance. It's a surprising and lovely place:-

As 'hidden' places go, well frequented pubs aren't high on the list. Especially ones that are given awards and media attention, as much because they're also a music venue as anything. However I was dragged into this Kings Cross boozer last April for the first time and really taken with how the nondescript frontage hid a gem inside. I'm very fond of the curious and the different. And comfort. Big fan of comfort. And out of main hours this place is still not packed, regardless of it's profile. I hope it stays that way. Because the interior is best enjoyed selfishly.

The Big Chill House has a very spacious ground floor with lots of standing room and tables with settees and armchairs. Then there is the much-segmented mezzanine overlooking the main floor, with bed-width soft couches and walls to hide behind. Nooks and crannies for all the crooks and nannies. But mostly I like the basement (see the photos). It has two booths designed for stretching out in, as you have to climb into them, feet off the floor, and the tables are suspended from the ceiling so as to not get the way, then there's the rest of the subterranean bit. Looking mainly like a set from Gerry Anderson's UFO. Essentially - assuming it never becomes so fashionable you need a machete to get to the bar during the day and on Sundays - this is one of those not-quite-central pubs that is worth visiting just for the surroundings. Not quite as quiet as a genuinely hidden boozer perhaps, but certainly a comparative place to be at times of a need to relax (and drink.. Definitely not to forget the drinking part).

• Added: 10th of December 2007
• Area: Bloomsbury
• Category: Bars and Pubs

London WC2H 8LN
020 7836 8956

ross said
Louder
That rating's two for the booze, five for the atmosphere, clientele.

The Intrepid Fox is a metal, goth, punk (real, not American boy band) and rock pub at the very core of London.

The actual booze on offer in this new locale is, as before in the Soho days, pretty uninspiring. You'd be missing the point though, if it was purely for the quality of alcohol that you were to attend. There is always more to a pub than the booze, and the booze is definitely not why people come here. And anyway, after a few in good company, it all becomes so much more palatable... The barstaff however are often a delight and very much an active part of the whole.

The iFox retains semi-legendary status amongst the rawk community but is often completely unknown outside of that, regardless of having been sat in the middle of London for decades. People have literally travelled thousands of miles to go to the iFox. True most of those were on holiday, but if they were metal/gofff/punk fans they KNEW of this place and made a bee-line for it. Girls from Brazil, Guys from Norway. The Intrepid Fox exudes a particular earthy splendour that has attracted its tribe from wherever they be, whomsoever they may be.

Friday and Saturday nights can be severely oversubscribed and, central London or not, it becomes a bit of a regulars-only thing. Though not strictly. But the door-staff used on these occasions have been known to be stupid enough to turn people away if they don't recognise them, or for 'not looking metal enough.' Which would mean I probably wouldn't get in on a Saturday night, regardless of infrequent but joyous attendance for half a decade now. the bar staff may recognise me but the bouncers wouldn't. It's a bit crap that the door policy should be style over content at the weekends. Daytimes mid-week however are less hectic and anyone is welcome. However there is an ironic dress code. No football colours (yay! anti-chav action!) and no ties. Well, not around one's neck anyway.

Named for the 18th century Whig member of Parliament Charles James Fox - a noted defender of liberal values and human rights and wearer of loud, unconventional clothing; a tad before his time - there was a pub of that name standing on the site of 97-99 wardour Street, Soho for over two hundred years. Then overnight, the blight of the post-Thatcher era fell upon this haven of rock history and stately debauchery; the property developers moved in...

Things looked bad. With less than a month's notice, the landlord, staff and regulars and supporters of the iFox were left flustered and angry, but not disheartened. Pat, the landlord wasn't going to let it go completely. The property, the original historic site, may have already been stolen out from under the feet of the cognoscenti in favour of ever-more yuppie flats in the ever-more sanitised and over-priced Soho, but that didn't mean the IDEAL of the iFox had to die as well. Within a few short months Pat and the core staff had acquired the license for the former Conservatory, a physically very different tri-level bar in St Giles High Street, under the shadow of Centre Point. Formerly a LGB bar, the central location and extra space made it ideal to encourage the old crowd back and to indeed bring in more casual trade. The larger size even meant there might be a chance of getting a seat of an evening...

It doesn't look the same from the outside. The old iFox was a definite dark-room pub. This is a glass, glass, and more glass-fronted bar externally (hence the old name). However inside, it's adopted the gravitas, ambience and soul of the original, as the clientele has slid right in, like a well-lubed rat up a drainpipe, with alacrity and eagerness. Bringing along the key decor and furnishings of the original helped; can't live without a ten-legged spider. Fittingly, it also boasts it's very own Hammer-House-Of-Horror church directly opposite; St Giles.

So if you like long hair, death-by-cleavage corsetry and stilettos (and that's just the blokes) accompanied by LOUD rawk music and a happily drunk heaving throng of metalheads and goth girls then look no further than the multi-floored crazed and contused iFox.

• Added: 8th of December 2007
• Area: Shepherds Bush
• Category: Stations and Transport

London W12 8ND
020 7222 1234

ross said
Shepherd's Bush: Gateway to the Pub!
In this case The Defector's Weld on the corner of Wood Lane. As this isn't about the DF I'll pass over more details for now.

The H&C line station, soon to be renamed something alopng the lines of "Shepherd's Bush Market" or somesuch, lies at the north end of Shepherd's Bush Common, aka Green. Walking directly south of it will bring you to the Central Line Shepherd's Bush station. Inbetween are the usual fast food joints and mobile phone touts and one or two decent charity/2nd hand shops. And at least two pubs.. (Knew there was a reason for this review...)

Opposite and adjacent to the station, lying between it and Goldhawk Road station is Shepherd's Bush Market. A fine, diverse and sometimes interestingly populated (i.e. try and avoid on the QPR home Saturdays) linear stretch of stalls and shops set alongside the tracks. So, cheeringly, should an H&C train ever derail here it would have something soft to land on fifteen feet below.

Lots of reasons just to head to Shepherd's Bush, but avoid the Green itself. Unless crossing it to get the the shopping centre/cinema, huge Wetherspoons pub - or onward down Rockley Road to St Simon's and the residential strangeness beyond. The Green, especially the kids playground, is more a fun hangout for various local chemically assisteds and alleged muggers (or worse Chuggers!). Always a fun passtime watching grown men peeing up against a tree next to the child-filled tennis courts on a hot summers day rather than walk five meters to the toilets...