The Axe
The Sunday roast starts at noon and stops when it sells out. Behind it the bar pours negronis off a draught line and a nitro espresso martini built on Climpsons coffee and Demerara rum, next to two or three casks the sister pub Red Hand cannot pour at all.
Why go
Grace Land, which also runs the Earl of Essex, took over Jan's Belgian beer bar and reopened it as The Axe in May 2017 (CAMRA). The beer program is the reason to come: around sixty beers with twenty-two on tap, two to three changing casks, natural wine, negronis on draught and a nitro espresso martini made with Demerara rum and Climpsons coffee (The Nudge). That cask line is the difference between the two sister venues, because CAMRA's June 2026 survey of Red Hand found no handpumps in the building at all. The kitchen runs pub classics with more care than the label suggests, and the Sunday roast is what the pub leads with itself. Hackney rated the kitchen 5 on 20 February 2025.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Sunday roast, or the pie of the day with mash. Time Out's picks from the wider menu were olives Ascolane, 'nduja on sourdough toast, halloumi chips with pomegranate molasses, and grilled lamb chops with Sicilian caponata.2
- Avoid: a late Sunday arrival. CAMRA records roasts running
from noon until late afternoon (or sold out).
1
What locals & experts say
- Time Out London (Tom Huddleston, 5 July 2017, 5/5):
a modest, fairly affordable local pub for local people,
which took over Jan's and kept its best qualities.2 - CAMRA WhatPub, locally listed 2018:
Grace Land, operator of the Earl of Essex acquired what was Jan's Bar to take its portfolio to five sites... Reopened as Axe in May 2017 with a central bar, an impressive beer list of 3 on cask regularly changing.
1 - The Nudge (Talisa Dean, 30 September 2022):
22 inventive, and interesting beers on tap,
running from araspberry gose
to a12% bourbon cru.
3 - Local rec: Jeff's row says "Gastropub recommended by red hand." REAL. Red Hand is a Grace Land bar and so is this, so treat it as a group recommendation.
Good to know
- Timing: Monday to Thursday noon to 11pm, Friday and Saturday noon to 00:30, Sunday noon to 10pm, per the pub's own page. CAMRA's 2022 survey has slightly different weekend closes.
- Kitchen: from 3pm Monday to Thursday, from noon Friday and Saturday, roasts from noon on Sunday.
- Booking: worth booking for the roast.
- Dietary: vegetarian dishes are on the menu; The Nudge named a coconut dhal with coconut yoghurt and a butternut squash pie with vegan feta in 2022. The pub publishes no allergen or vegan statement, so ask about the pastry if that matters.
- Hygiene: FSA record 1125636, rating 5 under Hackney, inspected 20 February 2025. The register files it under the building's old name, The Cricketers.
- Getting there: 18 Northwold Road, between Stoke Newington and Rectory Road stations.
Craft signals (beer: a keg board that turns)
Two signals, both drink-side. CAMRA's record has two cask lines and a main board of keg beers under Grace Land, the operator that also runs the Earl of Essex1. Untappd's public feed on 30 July 2026 shows what goes on that board: five consecutive pours from Lost and Grounded, Yonder, Saint Monday, Orbit and Floc., five unrelated independents with nothing repeating and no national brand in the run8. Two cask lines is a small cask offer; the keg list is where the rotation lives.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Rec via: "Gastropub recommended by red hand" REAL.
- Note: the two are sister venues under Grace Land, so the rec came from inside the company. The beer lists still differ, and this is the one with cask.
Verdict
should-visit — Around sixty beers with twenty-two on tap, two to three changing casks alongside them, natural wine, negronis on draught and a nitro espresso martini built on Demerara rum and Climpsons coffee. Time Out gave it five stars in 2017 and called it a modest, fairly affordable local pub for local people, which undersells a kitchen sending out lamb chops with Sicilian caponata and scallops on lemon risotto. It is run by Grace Land, the same operator as Red Hand in Dalston, and the two split the format between them: no cask there, changing cask here. Go on a Sunday for the roast, get there early, because CAMRA records it running until it sells out.