Island Queen, London

Posted on 29. Nov, 2010 by Robert Gale in Pubs

The Island Queen, Islington, London

The Island Queen is a Grade-II listed Victorian pub located on a backstreet in the Islington part of London.

Brief History

Dating from 1885, the pub is listed in CAMRA’s London Regional Inventory and offers a great example of how pubs would have looked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to the Full Pint magazine, a CAMRA North London’s newsletter, ‘much of the building dates from this time and includes the island back bar, the bar counter, two cast iron columns and a full height timber and glass screen forming a room at the rear’.

The Interior

As you walk into the pub you are greeted with a high-ceilinged room decorated with chandeliers. The room is darkly decorated but the large front windows let plenty of light in.

There is a mixture of etched and colonial style hand painted mirrors throughout and the seating is eccletic ranging from simple wooden benches at the front to more comfier sofas at the rear.

Upstairs there is a function room that can accommodate up to 70 people.

The Beers

The selection of beer at the Island Queen is excellent with a wide range of styles offered. When I visited in May, 2010 the beers that were available were Adnams Dry Stout, Sambrooks Wandle, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Sharps Doom Bar, Fruili, Paulaner, Hoegaarden, Leffe, Sierra Nevada, Meantime London Pale Ale, Peroni, Schneider Weisse and Kuppers Kolsch.

Apart from the ales which may change, all of the other beers were permanent fixtures. They also sell a wide variety of ciders ranging from Thatchers and Gaymers through to the very strong Aspall Cuvee.

More Photos of the Island Queen

Venue Location

Island Queen

87 Noel Road

London

N1 8HD

Tel: 020 7354 8741

www.theislandqueenislington.co.uk

View on Google Street View

Robert Gale (Twitter: @awv)

Beer Taster, Pub Attendee, Photo Taker

Robert Gale likes beer, pubs and beer festivals. He also likes to take photos of beer, pubs and beer festivals. Most weekends of the year you can find him travelling around the UK (and sometimes beyond) photographing and reviewing good quality pubs and beer festivals. He also has a day job in the form of a web developer for Ozum.

Guest

I have been a long term patron of The Island Queen and have
often recommended it to people looking for a good pub in Islington. However,
the treatment I received at the hands of its present manager, Antonia Orpen,
whose customer care skills are beyond appalling and more in the realms of a
horrific car crash, simply have to be given as a warning to anyone thinking of
using the place. I have never, ever been treated so disgracefully as I have
been by this woman, and if the problems others have reported vis a vis bad
service are to be believed, then it is little surprise given the atrocious
attitude of the person in charge. If I was the owner of this pub I would be
horrified to find out that someone as awful at dealing with customers was supposedly
the representative of my business.

The other day I rang the pub on behalf of my girlfriend to
find out if she had left her black scarf in the pub and if it had been found.
Ms Orpen reported that it had been but managed to hang up the phone before I
had a chance to tell her my name, when the scarf would be retrieved and the
name of the person collecting it. I had to ring back, and when I pointed out
that she had hung up the phone before I had had the chance to pass on the
information, she proceed to scream denials and blue murder down the phone at
me. The following day my girlfriend took an hour out to go and retrieve her
scarf, but on arrival it had bizarrely gone missing and no such item was to be
found. However, when I called the pub back to find out what the story was, there
was actually a scarf, but it had turned pink overnight. Ms Orpen proceeded once
more to shout down the phone at me and hang up again. I phoned a final time to try
and give her a chance to sort this situation out but once again I was shouted
at, abused and hung up on.

Such epically bad behaviour would usually see an employee fired,
but to see it from a manager beggars belief. Such individuals do a disservice
to the good pubs we have and eventually will start deservedly impacting on
business. Antonia Orpen should think long and hard about her chosen career as
she simply is not suited to working with people. Similarly, pub owners
Mitchells and Butlers would do well do dispose of her questionable and limited
talents before they cost a good pub not just money but also its reputation.