Halloween Post - The Spaniards Inn

White as a sheet, I look like I've seen a ghost.
But more likely I'm just recovering from the shock of paying £7.55 for ⅘ of a pint in a pub that didn't even want me to sit inside.

For this Halloween post I'm returning to London where the Spaniards Inn - spectacularly located on Hampstead Heath - is a sure-fire entrant on any list of most haunted inns of the capital.  Even though any ghost stories surrounding it are flakey, at best.

The Spaniards Inn (Spaniards Rd, London NW3 7JJ)
I approached from Golders Green, hopping aboard the 310 bus, which swings a left at Jack Straw's Castle, then takes you to within a few paces of the historic hostelry.
It dates back to around 1585 when it was built to accompany a toll house on the edge of the Bishop of London's estate.

🎃 It's associated with highwaymen, including the most famous of them all, Mr D. Turpin
🎃 Amongst an impressive list of literary connections, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley once frequented the Spaniards

🎃 The pub gets a mention in Bram Stoker's Dracula
🎃 It's said to be haunted by at least three ghosts...

There's a bit of a dispute about where the unusual name comes from - it could be named after a 16th century Spanish ambassador to King James, or it could be named after two landlords: Francisco and Juan Porero.  I like the second better, mainly because it links nicely to the ghost story.

It is said that Francisco and Juan got on fabulously well until they both fell in love with the same woman.  Fighting a duel was deemed the best solution to this love rivalry and resulted in Juan being shot dead and buried nearby.  But predicatably his spirit has risen from the grave to haunt the pub.
There is also a Woman in White whose ghostly form has been seen shimmering through the garden.  She just might be the woman the brothers were fatally besotted by, or could even be Dick Turpin's wife.

Legend has it that Dick Turpin's dad was landlord of the Spaniard's and that the nefarious highwayman would use the inn to spy out potential victims travelling these once remote roads.
There are modern-day stories of folks hearing the ghostly sound of the beating of horses hoofs on Hampstead Heath as though Turpin's steed Black Bess is racing towards the pub.
As if that's not enough, there is also the spirit of a money-lender who lost his life under the wheels of a carriage outside the Spaniards and has hung around to haunt it ever since.  His presence is a subtle one, more of a chilling presence, tugging on shirt sleeves only for folk to turn around and see no-one there.

After all that build-up, here's the picture of the main bar of the Spaniards, not lookng in the least bit spooky...

Jam jars in front of the cask selection inform us that all the ales are the same colour (do you really need jam jars for the two ciders?).  Isn't the latest Doom Bar pump clip rather hideous and over-sized.

I eventually managed to order a Timothy Taylor 'Boltmaker' after a short wait at a busy bar.
The staff member was admirably speedy in dealing with the crowds, but unfortunately the ferocious three-second pump of the beer engine doesn't make for the best served pint.  By the time I'd sat down I realised there was a good inch of foamy head on top of a wicked under-served pint. 

The interior has some nice nooks and crannies and a decent historic feel to it, but is 100% restaurant rather than pub.
Everything is set up for dining and everything is reserved.

They do have a good-sized garden, although - hell's bells - even a chunk of the outside tables were reserved, officious staff talking into walkie-talkies and directing customers.  I think I even got a scowl for helping myself to the high stools just outside the back door without checking I could perch there.

Okay, however short the measure, the 'Boltmaker' was lovely - well kept and selling at a rate of knots.

Right...enough.  I needed to get myself somewhere where the punters didn't sit outside with blankets draped over their cashemere sweaters.

I'm veering from Halloween post into further explorations of North London...

The bus to Golders Green turned up almost as soon as I reached the bus stop opposite the Spaniards (not even leaving me enough time to look out for Black Bess galloping across the Heath).
Back at Golders Green I switched to the 260 service and made the 20-minute trip west to Cricklewood.
Here's the travel shot from the front seat of the upper deck...

And here's the confirmation that I'd found my way to my intended destination...

I set off on foot down the vibrant and bustling Cricklewood Broadway, my destination the Beer-Guide listed Spoons...

The Beaten Docket (50–56 Cricklewood Broadway, Cricklewood, Barnet, NW2 3ET)
This is a compartively early JDW, opened back in 1991.  It's a lively single storey L-shaped pub (with the rarity that the Spoons toilets are on the same floor and don't require the usual hike).
The name comes, rather dubiously, from local horse racing, with the one-time popular Kingsbury Races taking place 'nearby'.

Here's the cask ale selection, complete with a 'Beer Guide - 2 years In a Row' advert (that's actually 2025, so they can celebrate 3 years now).

I picked the 5.5% 'West London IPA' from Twickenham, the £3.00 price being much more agreeable that what I'd paid in the Spaniards.
And no 'reserved' signs here, meaning I could take my pick of the seats, eventually ending up with a view of some rugby on the TV screen and a giant collection of empties behind me waiting for someone to take on dishwasher duties.
The Beaten Docket was satisfyingly busy and full of all walks of life.

The run of games machines bringing a bit of Vegas to Kilburn...

Just under a mile straight down the same roD is Kilburn High Street and the chance to visit a three-star CAMRA Historic Pub.

The Black Lion (274 Kilburn High Road, Kilburn, London, NW6 2BY)
The Black Lion was rebuilt on the site of an earlier public house in 1898, designed by architect R.A. Lewcock.  The turn of the century was a great era for extravagant and elegant pub designs and this doesn't disappoint when stepping through the door...

Just look at that stunning ceiling.
Uh-oh, at least two people seem to have clocked the suspicious oddbod who's arrived with his camera.

Three cask ale options on the bar, plus a hand pump dedicated to the Seacider.  I've always enjoyed the Five Points 'XPA' but was distratced from it on this occasion by the house-beer 'Black Lion Best'.
Costing a very reasonable-for-London £4.90 a pint - probably actually a St Austell 'Cornish Best Bitter'.  On good form, if not especially exciting.

The main room would once have been sub-divided by wooden panels with various doors from the street leading to public bars and salons.  Now only one wooden screen remains for posperity at the far end, the main space being open-plan and full of customers on this visit.

Back when I lived in London I made a few trips to the Luminaire music venue on Kilburn High Street, a bit of the city devoid of cask ale at the time.  A lot of the nearby pubs and bars do look on the 'edgier' side of capital boozers, and cask is still not a given in this area, but I'd throughly recomend making the effort to find your way to the Black Lion.
In hindsight I wish I'd stuck around a bit longer and tried something from the great-looking Indian-inspired menu.
This time, I was just here to prance around taking heritage pub pics...

From a pub rebuilt in 1898 to one rebuilt in 2020.
Another short-hop on the first bus bound for the city centre took me a mile-or-so to the Carlton Tavern.

Carlton Tavern (33 Carlton Vale, Kilburn, NW6 5EU)
Back in 2016, the Carlton Tavern was closed and the owners applied for planning permission to turn this into 10 flats.  That permission was denied but, just a couple of days before Historic England were set to grant the building a Grade II listed status, in came the demolition crew to tear the place to the ground.

After a valient campaign for justice for the pub, Westminster Council took an unprecedented step of ordering it be rebuilt "in facsilmile".
Handily, Heritage England had taken plaster casts of bricks and had collected detailed info, whilst bits of the bar counter, fireplace, and decorative ceiling were amongst things that could be salvaged from the rubble.  Almost six years after being torn down, the pub reopened amongst the challenges of lockdown rules in 2021.  And it looks great.

Super busy on this visit, with a cheerful crowd of punters - the armchair in the side room was the last available seat in the house.

The Anspach & Hobday ' Carlton Tavern Bitter' was on great form (more re-badged house beer - the 3.4% 'Ordinary Bitter' on this occasion, I suspect).
But the quality of the interior picture I managed to take is indicative that it was nearing time for me to call it a day and catch the train home.

Just time to pay a revisit to the nearby heritage Warrington Hotel...

I've visited the Maida Vale pubs a couple of times now, but never managed to write a blog post on them.  Just visit Pub Gallery for proper pictures of the Warrington and a couple of other corkers in this suburb of London.

Myself...I was on my way home.
Pondering whether I ever will manage to find a genuinely creepy pub, shrouded in mist, with creaking floorboards and cobwebs, for a proper Halloween pub post one year.