The Pineapple is a mid-Victorian pub on a quiet residential street in Kentish Town, built around 1868 to serve workers on the area’s new railway lines. It’s now Grade II listed - though it very nearly didn’t survive.
In 2001 the pub was sold with plans to convert it, and regulars set up the Pineapple Rescue Campaign, recruiting supporters including Jon Snow, Rufus Sewell and Ken Livingstone. They won: the pub was sold on as a going concern in March 2002, and a plaque marking ‘The Pineapple War 2001-2002’ now hangs inside alongside press cuttings from the fight.
The main thing to look at is the original back-bar screen: etched-glass mirrors decorated with vases of flowers and pineapples, a mirrored frieze spelling out ‘WHISKIES BRANDIES WINES’ and Corinthian pilasters, with more carved pineapples on the consoles beneath the counter. The fruit appears again on the keystones above the windows outside, and in the pineapple ephemera from around the world on the shelves. A single bar wraps round the serving area, with corridors either side leading to a conservatory at the back and a compact garden beyond.
Rather than gastropub plates, the kitchen serves a Thai menu seven days a week, with good-value lunch options on weekdays and dishes such as massaman curry and pad thai.
The beer list changes constantly, with Marston’s Pedigree as a regular alongside a rotating cast of London breweries, and the garden hosts regular beer festivals. In 2024, CAMRA members voted it their Pub of Pubs, on top of two North London Pub of the Year titles from the local branch.
Monday’s are the time to visit for the ever-popular Pineapple pub quiz. One more piece of local lore: in the 1890s, the pub’s rear stables housed a giraffe from London Zoo, for reasons nobody has quite explained.