Earl of Essex
The pub has confirmed to CAMRA that it holds no regular beers at all, so the pumpclips have come off and what is on is written on a board to the left of the door.
Why go
This was a Watney house, and the tiled frontage from that era holds a local listing, three stallrisers and seven pilasters. What it is now is a rotating beer pub run by Grace Land, a small London group that also owns the Saint Monday brewery, so some of the keg is the operator's own. The policy is the interesting part: no regulars, up to four cask ales turning over, and at least one real cider kept on a handpump permanently, which almost no craft pub bothers with (CAMRA). The cask rotation pulls in London brewers, Five Points and Redemption among them. Fred Waltman's survey counts five handpumps, thirteen keg taps and about twenty-five bottles and cans (London Beer Guide). The pub did brew its own beer once. It stopped years ago, and a lot of coverage has not caught up.
Order this / avoid
- Order: read the board first, because it is the only listing. One of the four rotating casks, ideally the London one. The cider on handpump, since it is always there. Then something Belgian off the bottle list, which is the part of the range people miss.
- Avoid: asking for the house beer. The on-site brewery is gone, and a 2017 review and our own spreadsheet both still say otherwise.
What locals & experts say
- Fred Waltman, London Beer Guide, in the guide's own line:
Lovely one roomed, light and airy pub close to Angel station.
His survey is the source for the hardware count. Two signed reader notes sit below it and are visitors' words, one of them noting the brewery islong since gone
.2 - CAMRA's North London branch, in a record updated 23 June 2026, quoting the pub:
The pub has confirmed that they no longer have regular beers and intend to rotate up to 4 cask ales and at least 1 real cider on handpump, this can include London brewed beers such as Five Points and Redemption.
The same record states the on-site breweryceased operations some time ago
.1 - Laura Reynolds, Londonist (4 February 2014), on why the location does not hold it back:
Given its slightly off-the-beaten-track location in the residential back-streets between Angel and Canonbury, it's surprising how busy this pub can get. At popular times, beer geeks flock from far and wide to hang out here.
Twelve years old, and her line about an in-house brew no longer applies.3 - No chef or bartender vote. The London chef votes were searched on 1 August 2026 and hold nothing for this pub.
Good to know
- Where: 25 Danbury Street N1 8LE, on the residential streets between Angel and Canonbury. Angel tube.
- Timing: open from noon daily.
- Booking: walk in.
- How to order: the board to the left of the entrance lists every beer and cider. There are no pumpclips.
- Food and garden: a full food menu, and a beer garden at the back.
- Hygiene: the FSA records rating 5, inspected 12 September 2024, with components 5, 5 and 5, where lower is better.4
- Michelin: not recorded either way. Our cached Michelin data is stars only.
Verdict
should-visit — The pub has told CAMRA it keeps no regular beers at all. Up to four cask ales rotate, at least one real cider stays on a handpump, and there are up to fourteen independent keg lines behind them, with about twenty-five bottles including a proper Belgian section. The pumpclips are gone, so what is on is written on a board to the left of the door, and that board is the whole point of coming. The cask rotation pulls in London brewers, Five Points and Redemption among them, and some of the keg is Saint Monday, which the pub's operator Grace Land also owns. Do not come for a house beer: the on-site brewery closed years ago, whatever the older listings say. It is a one-room pub on a residential Islington backstreet with a garden, a real food menu, and a Watney-era tiled frontage that is locally listed. Worth the detour for the range and the cider line, held back from higher by the absence of any recent critical assessment.