The Kings Head Cometh

Well the big day is getting closer and closer. Brodie’s back this week. The invitations for the Grand Opening have been received and rumours of dinghies being attached to the ceiling have been discussed with bemused incredulity.

The Kings Head is almost open and we stand on the cusp of history. Like Cortes in the new world or Caesar at the Rubicon, we are at the brink of the future.

New (or kind of new/revamped) pubs in Enfield are a rare thing in this day and age. There was Bar Form – which was great for a time and served a purpose before it went completely mental , disappeared up its own arse, and decided to only open when it felt like it, until everyone eventually forgot that it was even there.

Then there’s the Stag which was gastrofied and trendified a couple of years ago, which I haven’t been to – although the reports I’ve heard haven’t been overwhelmingly positive.

And of course the Taps – which continues in all its glory to this day.

But what of the Kings Head?

The Kings Head was, in its day, certainly a fine old pub that had a good group of committed regulars, and although I rarely used it by the time of its final demise I still have fond memories of the place.

It’s a lovely building – old fashioned and distinguished (and, being honest by its last days, slightly decrepit and threadbare)  – with a stunning square (apparently listed) bar which goes up a level and which you can fit a lot of bar stools around, lovely frosted glass windows and wooden fittings, and for some reason I always thought of it as a winter pub – and even more specifically – as a Christmas pub. Equally, the Kings Head, like the Old Bell was quite popular with lots of the old Enfield Arms crowd, and as such I could always be guaranteed a friendly welcome from at least a few people in there.

And I must confess that I am looking forward to seeing what the place will be like. (It helps, of course, that Brodie will be in charge as that guarantees a steady hand at the helm). It’s all quite exciting. It’s not just that we’re getting an old pub back – but that it’s going to be a new pub at the same time.

Now, please, don’t get me wrong, I am, and will remain, Taps faithful, but I think that I’ll probably find my way to the King’s Head (or the ‘Head) at least once a week. I like sitting at bars – in fact the only time I’ll sit at a table in a pub is when I really have to – and sometimes it’s nice to be a stranger at a bar. To just sit anonymously, and listen to the random banter between regulars for a few hours. To let your mind wander and get slowly drunk. To look around an unfamiliar pub and wonder what it would be like if it were your local.

Because, to subvert the old trope, sometimes you want to go where nobody knows your name.

There’s also another benefit to the ‘Head opening, and that’s that the Taps is likely to be, in the short term, fairly (blissfully) quiet while everyone goes to have a look at the new kid in town.

How nice that will be.