The Gipsy Queen Tavern
The Parker Pub Company gave up this Malden Road local after nine years on 21 May 2025, and a south London group reopened it ten weeks later with 23 taps and a new name.
Why go
Clapham Leisure, founded in 2013 by Jayke Mangion and Andy Bell, took the lease and reopened at the end of July 2025 as The Gipsy Queen Tavern. The group runs pubs and coffee shops mostly south of the river plus the Wine & Charcuterie brand in Bloomsbury, and its pitch for this one was posted plainly: "Your Neighbourhood pub is back with 23 awesome taps cocktails and great food." CAMRA's July 2026 survey lists the pub open with one regular cask line, Sharp's Doom Bar, lunchtime and evening meals, live music every Friday, a Sunday quiz, and a heated covered garden. The kitchen relaunched from scratch, so anything written about the food here before 2025 describes a different operation.
Order this / avoid
- Order: off the taps, which is where the new operators put their money, and the Sunday roast if you want to test the kitchen.
- Avoid: planning around cask ale. CAMRA logs a single regular cask line against a keg-led range.
What locals & experts say
- Kentishtowner (1 Aug 2025): the pub
shut their doors in May
andfinally reopened at the weekend,
nowunder the stewardship of Clapham Leisure, an 'award-winning hospitality group'.
1 - The Parker Pub Company (May 2025):
It is with a heavy heart that we must tell you, our fellow friends and cherished regulars, that May 21 will be our last day trading at the Gipsy Queen.
2 - Time Out (Richard Ehrlich): three stars for the earlier incarnation,
The people at the Grafton know what it takes to run a top-tier local. We're rooting for them here.
The review predates the 2025 relaunch.4
Good to know
- Timing: live music on Fridays, quiz on Sundays; check current hours on the pub's own channels, which are the only place they are published.
- Booking: walk-in. The function room takes groups over 60.
- Getting there: 166 Malden Road, on the Gospel Oak side of Kentish Town, about fifteen minutes' walk from Camden Town.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: Foursquare pub rec near camden
Verdict
listed — A Malden Road local that lost its nine-year operators in May 2025 and reopened ten weeks later under a south London group with 23 taps and a rebuilt kitchen. Nobody has assessed the food since, so it goes on the board as a neighborhood pub near Camden with live music on Fridays and a quiz on Sundays, and gets re-ranked when someone reviews it.