The High Cross Tottenham at one year: things keep getting better
The High Cross, a pub situated in a former public convenience in central Tottenham near the police station and the bus garage celebrated its first birthday last Friday. It wasn’t exactly its first birthday I think but a bank holiday weekend is a good time to mark the occasion.
Obviously Ive no idea about the economics of the thing but judging by the number of customers its doing well. It originally had 6 taps now it has 12 and didn’t open 7 days but now it is does.
Its all a bit surprising and welcome because until recently pubs have been shutting in Tottenham for a while. Probably the main culprit was a building company entrepreneur who bought up pubs and then shut them and redeveloped them as flats.
Its true though that until recently the drinking population of the area was in a decline, perhaps not major but demand was less. Thanks to gentrification (arguably one of the few benefits BUT Tottenham has been a place of comers and goers since the 1870s) that’s no longer true.
Anyway I have a professional interest as a trade union officer in keeping an eye on what happens in Tottenham so I was well aware in the latter part of 2017 that a licence had been granted to the former toilets. The people behind it appeared to be a chef and a former Mother Kellys employee.
That is Chris and Alex btw.
It seemed a bit uncertain whether Tottenham had changed enough to support new pub openings particularly ones selling craft beer on keg even allowing for the number of breweries now in the area.
The answer anyway is yes. The food is excellent and the beer range very decent with monthly tap takeovers and always a varied range on from imperial stouts to lower strength pales.
It is obviously not a huge place but its well organised and friendly and it has worked. Even Time Out, usually a source of incorrect information about Tottenham, managed to give it an excellent and mainly correct review on its first birthday
Happy Birthday to the High Cross!
I remember Tottenham being described as a “beer desert” by some CAMRA publication or other a few years back. No longer!
quite so. Three new pubs selling craft & cask beer have opened in the last year & the Beehive is much improved