Grade II listed for one reason: inside a pub rebuilt around 1830 survives the early-seventeenth-century fabric of the Tudor Queen's Head that stood here before it. A modelled plaster ceiling of scrolling floral bands and emblems in cartouches runs above the public bar, and in the north-west corner is a carved stone-and-oak chimneypiece — term figures flanking two narrative panels under a strapwork frieze, continued upward in wood with three more figures. Both were salvaged from the demolished building and reinstalled. Around them is a Columbo Group party pub, run that way since 2006: DJs, a karaoke room, a pizza concession and a licence to 3am on Saturdays. Four-hundred-year-old features in a loud modern room, and none the less remarkable for it.
Location
Islington, London
Map
Plan Your Visit
Bar seating
Sit at bar, order from bartender
Insider Intel
Early on a weeknight, before the DJs — that is when you can actually stand at the chimneypiece and look at it. Friday and Saturday nights are for the party, not the plasterwork.
The chimneypiece and ceiling are genuine early 1600s work, listed by Historic England (entry 1195587) and reinstalled from the Tudor pub demolished around 1830 — not a themed refit. The operation around them is a late-night party pub, open to 3am on Saturdays. Come for the fabric with your expectations set accordingly.