The Black Heart

The kitchen that made this metal pub a food destination, LD's, whose vegan roast Time Out ranked third best in London, played its final service here on 29 March 2026, and the all-vegan kitchen that replaced it has not been named by anyone (Time Out, venue).

Why go

The building tells you what it is before you get in. It sits on Greenland Place, a side street off Camden High Street that reads as an alley, painted black end to end, with a large black heart hanging outside as the only sign (CAMRA). Inside is one bar, booths down one side, tables down the other, a pool table and a wall of posters. Upstairs is a room that runs gigs most nights, ticketed through DICE. Above that, since 2023, is a tattoo parlour.

The beer is keg. CAMRA's record counts ten taps, two of them held for Camden Town Brewery's Ink and Hells and the other eight alternating, with bottles alongside and no cask at all. That survey was taken in October 2016, which is worth knowing before you plan around a particular line.

Grace Land runs it, and the connection matters if you like this kind of room: the same company operates The Axe in Stoke Newington, Red Hand in Dalston, Saint Monday Brewery in London Fields and The Earl of Essex in Islington. The pub is also a registered Asset of Community Value, which it earned in the plainest way. In January 2021 it told Camden it needed GBP 100,000 in eight weeks to survive, and more than GBP 40,000 came in during the first week.

Order this / avoid

• Order: whichever of the eight alternating lines is on, and Hells or Ink if the rotation is not going your way. Food is entirely plant-based and starts the moment the doors do, Monday to Thursday from 3pm, weekends from noon.
• Avoid: cask, which does not exist here. Weekday afternoons before 3pm. And do not turn up expecting the roast people used to queue for, because that kitchen has moved out and is looking for a new home.

What locals & experts say

• Leonie Cooper, Food & Drink Editor at Time Out, November 2024: "As rock pubs go, the Black Heart is pretty much perfect. This Camden pub classic opened back in 2009 and always has heavy, never less than ear-splittingly sonorous metal on the sound system as well as the goth-adjacent quasi-religious tat on the walls." On the room upstairs: "nightly gigs from up-and-coming doom, emo, thrash, stoner, hard rock and psychobilly bands, and anyone else who likes it loud and a touch sinister." ref
• CAMRA's North London branch, on the building: "Tucked away in a side-street off the main drag, it is nonetheless a true Camden Town bar with its exterior painted completely black and a large black heart hanging outside being the only indication of its name." Its beer line: "There are 10 keg taps, two for Camden Town Brewery Ink & Hells, 8 alternating plus a range of bottled beers." ref
• The venue itself, in January 2021, raising money to stay open: "We were closed for months only to reopen at less than half our capacity and with hardcore restrictions. We still managed to successfully put on 11 socially distanced gigs and eight live streams, but it was not enough to keep us going." And: "We are and always have been an independently owned venue and we are proud to say we've retained all of our staff because we're a family." ref
• India Lawrence, Time Out, February 2026, on the kitchen leaving: LD's "was named Time Out's second-best brunch in the capital and was formerly Time Out's third-best roast," after three years in residence here and at Saint Monday. LD's own line: "Thank you all to the customers for the support at both venues the past three years." ref

Good to know

• Where: 2-3 Greenland Place, Camden Town NW1 0AP, a minute from Camden Town tube. The street looks like an alley off the High Street.
• Timing: Monday to Thursday 3pm to midnight, Friday noon to 2am, Saturday 11am to 2am, Sunday noon to midnight. Live DJs run the late end at weekends.
• Kitchen: Monday to Thursday 3pm to 10pm, Friday and Saturday noon to 10pm, Sunday noon to 8pm.
• Food: entirely vegan, and that is the venue's own description of the whole offer rather than a section of it. The current kitchen is unnamed and has no published menu.
• Booking: walk in for the bar. Gigs upstairs are ticketed through DICE.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 4, Camden, inspected 3 February 2026, FHRSID 425883, components hygiene 5, structural 10, confidence in management 5, where lower is better. The registration is still in the joint name of The Black Heart and LD's Kitchen, and the inspection was seven weeks before LD's left, so it describes the previous tenant. ref
• In the room: pool table, function room, wifi, dogs welcome, a poster wall and a tattoo parlour upstairs called Devil's Door, open since 2023.
• Status: a registered Asset of Community Value, per CAMRA's record.
• Sites: one pub. Grace Land also runs The Axe, Red Hand, Saint Monday and The Earl of Essex, which are separate rooms with separate beer lists. The pub traded as the Camden Tup before 2009.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His saved-places export carries an empty note for this row, so the master CSV's "Metal pub with gigs upstairs" is enrichment text rather than his line and is not quoted as his.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — Worth the walk if you are going upstairs, and a fair pint if you are not. Time Out's Food & Drink Editor Leonie Cooper puts it plainly: 'As rock pubs go, the Black Heart is pretty much perfect.' It opened in 2009 on a Camden side street that looks like an alley, painted entirely black with a hanging heart for a sign, and the room upstairs runs gigs most nights for doom, thrash, stoner and psychobilly bands. It holds an Asset of Community Value listing, which it earned the hard way: in January 2021 it needed GBP 100,000 in eight weeks to survive and its regulars found more than GBP 40,000 of it inside a week. Weighed with craft first, though, the glass is the limit. There is no cask, and CAMRA counts ten keg lines with two locked to Camden Town Brewery and eight alternating, on a survey taken in 2016. The kitchen is the live question: LD's, whose vegan roast Time Out ranked third best in London, moved out on 29 March 2026, and the all-vegan kitchen that replaced it has not been named or reviewed by anyone. So this is a pub to go to for a reason, and on a gig night the reason is obvious.