GORDON HILL ! A WALK TO THE JOLLY BUTCHERS IN ENFIELD

September 2025. Enfield.

Home from Carshalton, and straight back into London the next day.

“Proper” tickers would have squeezed in halves in all three remaining London pubs that Friday night, but post-completion I only deal in pints, and want to take the time to appreciate the culture in places like Carshalton, and Atherstone, and Enfield.

My cheap fare to one of London’s most unsung of boroughs doesn’t actually go via London, making you wait at Stevenage for half an hour, which is just insufficient time to nip to the Old Town Spoons and back for a pitcher of Woo-Woo*.

But that’s OK, as Mumbai Zaika have some unhealthy looking pakoras to dip in green sauce.

There’s also free entertainment, as a chap boards the quiet Thameslink service and proceeds to do a full clothing change. As you do.

I move to the back of the carriage; he follows me down, and starts to rant about the lack of toilets on Thameslink. Most worryingly, he doesn’t appear drunk.

He gets off at Cuffley, which doesn’t have pubs but probably does have bushes. I’ve got a ticket to Chase, but get off at Gordon Hill, named after the iconic ’70s winger, the most famous person to come from Middlesex (after Russell Grant).

Most folk (“normies”) will never understand the thrill of exploring a (very) dull North London suburb on the way to a pub,

the agonies of indecision when passing an attractive corner boozer en-route,

and the joy of finding your target as gorgeous as you hoped.

Sadly, the Jolly Butchers isn’t as busy at 3pm on Saturday as you’d like, let’s call it “airy”.

Two young barmaids are discussing the Arsenal Ladies match on the telly, It’s great to see women’s football going so mainstream.

Good to see McMullen’s AK back in a few pubs, too,

though with no trade it lacks that last bit of crispness (NBSS 3).

But it’s friendly, and packed with ’80s Duran Duran memorabilia (“cute” says my note), all the table reservations for that evening seem to be for women and the painting on the wall outside sums up the place nicely.

Right, Gordon Hill complete, let’s go and discover Enfield proper.

*Just as well I didn’t leave the station. The automatic barriers needed a human to confirm that, indeed, I was old enough to be using a Senior Rail Card and I’d have been trapped at Stevenage, forever.

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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.

13 thoughts on “GORDON HILL ! A WALK TO THE JOLLY BUTCHERS IN ENFIELD”

  3. McMullens are a strange one: a deeply trad family brewer in an attractive market town just outside London whose main product is a cask mild – the only surviving AK, no less – which has been readily available in their couple of West End pubs for decades – and yet they’re completely under the radar. They could have cult appeal, but neither the beer hipsters nor CAMRA take much notice of them.

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    1. AP, I don’t think they’ve been under CAMRA’s radar, it’s more that for decades they’ve used cask breathers to maintain the quality of cask beers in their pubs !

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      1. That is definitely true, but I sense that (like Arkells and Wadworth) they’ve never been much favoured by CAMRA members. Roger Protz has always given them fair coverage.

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  4. Thanks for another pub name on which to reflect, Martin.

    I mean, if hacking up dead animals all day for a living doesn’t engender a frivolous disposition, then what ever will?

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  5. “Home from Carshalton, and straight back into London the next day.”

    Blimey. You could’ve just slept overnight in Wetherspoons at the station.
    (though, I did that once in a Paris railway station and I wouldn’t recommend it)

    “and want to take the time to appreciate the culture in places like Carshalton, and Atherstone, and Enfield.”

    I can’t tell if you’re pulling my leg.

    “which is just insufficient time to nip to the Old Town Spoons and back for a pitcher of Woo-Woo*”

    Not gonna sneak a peek at the * further down but, you did manage to quaff a pint in under 4 minutes the day before.

    “As you do.”

    Never done that. But I did streak naked* at Uni with 20 other blokes back in the day. We even got our picture taken and a column in the local paper.

    * – we did wear sock, sneakers and ‘toques’ (wooly head gear – it was winter in Canada when we did the run!)

    “Most worryingly, he doesn’t appear drunk.”

    As I understand it, people on Cannabis, Meth or Fentanyl don’t exhibit ‘drunk’ behaviour.

    “which doesn’t have pubs but probably does have bushes”

    If he’s comfortable doing a complete wardrobe change I don’t think a lack of bushes would put him off.

    “the most famous person to come from Middlesex (after Russell Grant)”

    I’ll take your word for it.

    “Most folk (“normies”) will never understand the thrill of exploring a (very) dull North London suburb on the way to a pub”

    No comment. 😉

    “and the joy of finding your target as gorgeous as you hoped”

    Phew!

    “let’s call it “airy”.”

    Oof. 😦

    Also, is Jolly Butchers the proper British way of saying Halal?

    “It’s great to see women’s football going so mainstream.”

    Maybe that’s why the pub’s empty? (ducks!)

    “all the table reservations for that evening seem to be for women”

    Hang on! Ahem… or those that identify as one mayhap.

    “*Just as well I didn’t leave the station. The automatic barriers needed a human to confirm that, indeed, I was old enough to be using a Senior Rail Card and I’d have been trapped at Stevenage, forever.”

    Yikes!

    Cheers,

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    1. Mid 70s to early 80s were peak times for British footballers going to the States, often for the summer I guess. If you believe what you read the average English footballer in 1975 was paid in milk tokens and America had Starsky and Hutch so an easy choice.

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