TOP 100 PUBS – SKINNERS ARMS, JUDD ST, LONDON

July 2023. London WC1.

A Terrific Travelcard Tuesday in terms of distance covered but a rather woeful haul of just two new Guide pubs (Camberwell and Chiswick) before I had to plan a return home to get Mum her favourite tea from Waterbeach Best Kebab. You should never keep your mum waiting beyond 5 for her tea.

30 years ago I’d had a Tandoori tea with Mrs RM on Woburn Walk across from Euston.

Back in 1993 the pub choice was a Firkin (now the Rocket), but now I was looking for a pre-train pint close to King’s Cross. Simon, in a rare moment of being “not drunk” this year, was helpfully suggesting the Queen’s Head, but I’d only been there 10 years ago.

I thought I’d go much further back in ticking time, as long as I didn’t get distracted by the Guinness at the Boot.

Not many London pubs* have survived in the GBG as long as the Skinners Arms.

You can’t miss it; it’s the one with the camel on the roof. A camel can survive for 7 days in a beer desert (e.g. North-West London) on a pint of Abbot.

I reckon it’s 25 years since I last visited, when the beer range would have been Greene King IPA and the afore-mentioned Abbot.

Has anything changed, bar an escape from the clutches of Greene King ?

Er, no.

And isn’t that great ? Still pictures from Martin Chuzzlewit in the Gents.

Martin “Halfwit” here had completely forgotten he’d written about the Skinners as recently as March 2021, and for a moment reading that post I forgot that pubs were closed two years ago and that was a Guess the Pub special.

The decor is unchanged since 1986, the soundtrack starts in ’86 (“Invisible Touch” by Genesis) and then goes back in time;

Which is fine for the Old Boy drinkers like me, I guess.

The Abbot is cool and rich (NBSS 3+), and at £5.50 nowhere near as bad as I read about elsewhere in the Smoke.

An unlikely survivor appreciated by fans of traditional pubs like Paul Mudge, though the complete absence of any trade in 20 minutes mid-afternoon was a worry.

Finally a young Italian couple (it’s always the Italians) tipped up and ordered two glasses of wine; £8.90 the pair. The pair !

A chap in a “Death to the Pixies” T-Shirt on the next table sat marking up his paperback and chuckling to himself. I guess that could be BRAPA in 15 years time, but I suspect he’ll have kept his hair better.

A wonderful pub. Stuff your Parcel Yard.

*Anyone ever been in “London Pub” at the Royal National Hotel ? Looks, er, great.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

35 thoughts on “TOP 100 PUBS – SKINNERS ARMS, JUDD ST, LONDON”

  1. Not a bad put, at all, but for a pre-train pint, it is hard to beat MacGlynns. Always busy. Great pub atmosphere. I’ve had many a curry in Woburn tandoori, by the way.

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    1. McGlynn’s is indeed a good pub. My preferred option in the area however will always be the Lord John Russell: I started drinking there in 2005 when they became the first pub outside of Czechia to serve the then brand new Budvar Dark. 18 years later they still serve it, and I still go there. I‘m sure I’ve visited the LJR more times than any other pub (well, excluding my own).

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  2. The Skinner’s Arms, was part of Grand Metropolitan 40 or so Years ago, and therefore sold Truman’s Tap Bitter, Watneys London Bitter, Stingo Barley Wine, (1/2 pint bottles), unlike the Whitbread Gold Label, which was a Nip.

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    1. Horden,
      “Stingo Barley Wine, (1/2 pint bottles)”
      I remember Stingo, the dark one, and Export Gold, the light one, in third pint bottles but that was nearer fifty years ago.

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      3. Though it could also be thought of as a beer style, Hall & Woodhouse, Higsons and Sam Smiths also doing a Stingo.
        Also Spingo from the Blue Anchor, Helston. And Bendigo from the Home Brewery.
        Fargo from Charles Wells wasn’t in the same league.

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  3. “An unlikely survivor appreciated by fans of traditional pubs like Paul Mudge” although having been nearby dozens of times I don’t know it.

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    1. I could add that the first Skinners Arms I used was on Camberwell New Road ( keg Ind Coope fifty years ago, the Kennington now ) and the next was in Machynlleth ( Burtonwood in the mid 1970s, a pint with you four years ago )

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      4. Yes, I did alright staying in Conwy a few weeks ago, the Albion and the Liverpool Arms probably being the best.

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      1. T’other Paul,
        Yes, it’s Mabel’s that I used fifteen and two months ago.
        I now think I did get in that Skinners Arms many years ago but with so many pubs during ninety nights and probably 200 days in the capital I can’t remember them all.

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      2. I suspect that the Skinner’s Arms looks better with age, Paul.

        I’d always have picked Mabel’s, of the two, but Skinner’s is a real survivor.

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      3. I’ve just booked three nights in Sussex ( details on the BPF in a couple of days ) so that should have me yards from the Skinners Arms on Sunday 24th and Wednesday 27th September so I’ll have no excuse for not finding out if the Abbot drinks well there during the autumn.

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    1. Now I’m confusing who’s made which comments. You don’t get that problem chatting in a proper pub.
      Yes, it “looks a good’un” but a photograph gives no indication of deafening ‘music’ or the stench of chips, just as “that looks a nice pint” can be Sarsons thrashed through a tight sparkler. “You can’t judge a book by its cover” as they say and as some people will realise later this year when they realise they’ve not just bought a book about Bruce Dickinson’s band.

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      1. It doesn’t matter why folk buy the Good Beer Guide, or whether they even open it, just that the Campaign’s finances are preserved. Apparently.

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      5. Your mention of “the stench of chips” reminded me why I haven’t been to the Skinners Arms since my first visit in 2017. (See my review on Pubs Galore here: https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubreviews/22033/) It was either that or finding other and better pubs within striking distance of Kings Cross and St Pancras stations. Of which my current favourite is McGlynns, mentioned in the first comment above, several days ago by now…

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      6. Some very consistent opinions there. I think you’re safe from chip smells now, Will, though lack of trade a bigger issue.

        I enjoyed “Would expect the bar staff to know a bit more about the offerings – rather than answering the question “what is the Sambrooks Lavender Hill like” with “Its an Ale, innitt” “. Do we expect staff to give an opinion on the terroir of the lagers and wines ? Asking for a friend.

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      7. I might then remember that other nearby pubs are available as I’m going to and from Sussex in September.

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      8. Martin,
        On your recommendation I was in the Skinners Arms yesterday lunchtime. The Abbot wasn’t drinking at all ( pumpclip turned round ) but the Landlord was drinking quite well. My chicken strips with a few chips was eating very well, especially with thirty bob change out of a tenner for it.
        With 95 minutes between trains I also did Mabels Tavern and the Somers Town Coffee House where after my glass had been filled with Adnams Southwold Bitter I was told it was “card only” but, with common sense prevailing ( and them not wanting to waste a pint ), my exact £5.40 was soon quite willingly accepted.

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  5. Martin, would the disappearance of Discourse, which I assume is some kind of CAMRA exclusive “chatroom,” make a ha’porth of difference to the world of beer, or life in general?

    More to the point if CAMRA’s sole raison d’etre is to make money, rather than campaigning to raise the profile of beer in general, and cask beer in particular, then it needs to take a good, hard look at itself.

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    1. Everybody needs an outlet, Paul. Some need to shout at football matches, some berate other mums on Mumsnet, many like a Twitter pile-on, you and I have got a blog. CAMRA folk belittle each other on Discourse.

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