The Queen's Head.

The Queen's Head

The branch chair's reason for sending people here is a three percent beer: It's well known for serving one of the best pints of Trinity, brewed by Tottenham's Redemption Brewery and at only 3% ABV, it's remarkably tasty and worth a visit to the Queen's Head for that alone (CAMRA North London).

Why go

Keeping a 3% beer in condition is harder than keeping a strong one, and this pub has built a reputation on doing it. Trinity is the single regular; two more cask lines change, and the cask and cider both rotate while the kegs move with the seasons (venue). The cider is the other half: up to three traditional ones, poured from handpump and bag in box, which took CAMRA London's Cider Pub of the Year in 2013 and 2016. The branch made the whole pub its Pub of the Year in 2022, after what Colin Coyne called being shortlisted a number of times. The room is a narrow late-Georgian house in a terrace built around 1764, Grade II listed, and CAMRA gives the interior a National Inventory One Star, meaning a pub interior of special national historic interest (CAMRA). What survives: a green tiled dado, a tiled cornice frieze, mirrors down the back bar, a bowed bay window in engraved glass, and two old Charrington's lanterns on the wall. The floor tiling still shows where a corridor once ran along the right-hand side into three separate rooms.

Order this / avoid

• Order: Trinity, then a cider, then whichever of the two changing casks looks interesting. Kernel turns up on keg. Food is built to sit beside the beer rather than compete with it, so a Mrs King's Melton Mowbray pork pie, or the ploughman's off the cured meats and cheese.
• Avoid: arriving with cash, since the pub is card only. Avoid Monday before 4pm, when it is shut. And if you want to talk, avoid Thursday from 8pm, when the piano starts, or the last Thursday of the month, when a five-piece jazz band plays.

What locals & experts say

• Colin Coyne, chairman of CAMRA's North London branch, on the 2022 award: This pub has previously won our branch's Cider Pub of the Year twice (2013 and 2016) but never before managed to win the branch Pub of the Year, despite being shortlisted a number of times... that is, until now! He describes it as a lovely late Georgian building, grade 2 listed, with a number of original Victorian features and is well worth coming to look at. The award came from a vote of the branch's 1,400 members.2
• Pete Czubala, of the pub, on receiving it: We take huge pride in creating a welcoming space at our inner city pub with delicious drinks to be enjoyed. We work hard to make it the much loved haunt for locals, commuters and beer lovers it has become. It feels great to come out of the pandemic with an award that reflects our efforts.2
• CAMRA's own record on the room: It retains much of its Victorian character such as etched mirrors, a splendid bay window, a fine back gantry, floor tiling, blue wall tiles (listed), lamps, a lovely fireplace, a lantern and a mixture of old, non-matching tables and chairs. Its heritage grading is One star - A pub interior of special national historic interest.1
• The statutory listing describes a Mid-late C19 public house frontage, restored, of moulded pilasters with enriched capitals and consoles and, inside, good interior with green tiled dado, tiled cornice frieze, mirrors along back bar and wall opposite counter.1
• Nothing outside CAMRA has been written about it. The approved London press was searched on 30 July 2026 and every assessment found is the branch's own. CAMRA's last survey of the pub, on 30 January 2026, is at least recent.

Good to know

• Where: 66 Acton Street, St Pancras WC1X 9NB, off Gray's Inn Road. The pub puts King's Cross St Pancras at two minutes' walk, with Euston, Angel and Russell Square at ten.
• Timing: Monday 4pm to 11pm, Tuesday and Wednesday noon to 11pm, Thursday to Saturday noon to midnight, Sunday noon to 10.30pm. CAMRA notes the pub can stay open past those times depending on trade.
• Booking: by phone or email, and the pub holds tables back for walk-ins.
• Payment: card only.
• Hygiene, stated plainly: FSA rating 3, Camden, rating date 10 June 2021, FHRSID 426426, component scores 10 for hygiene, 10 for structural and 10 for confidence in management, where lower is better. That inspection is five years old and no re-rating is pending, so this is the oldest hygiene information in this batch and it is old rather than bad.4
• CAMRA members: LocAle accredited, with 10% off.
• In the room: single bar, real fire, rear smoking patio, benches on the pavement, wi-fi. Piano every Thursday from 8pm and every Sunday from 4.30pm, jazz on the last Thursday of the month.
• Sites: independently run, with siblings named separately by two sources. CAMRA's award piece names Simon the Tanner in Bermondsey; the pub's own site names Mother Kelly's. Neither names both, and neither has a row in this database yet.
• Do not confuse it: there is another Queen's Head at 22 Easton Street WC1X 0DS, under a kilometre away, run by Pub Love under Stonegate. CAMRA recorded in December 2025 that it has no cask ale at all and that cask drinkers get pointed to the Perseverance instead.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Open question for him: the sibling pub named by CAMRA, Simon the Tanner in Bermondsey, is one of the three candidates for his "borough trifecta" note on The Hand & Marigold. That the two pubs share an owner is new information and may or may not bear on what he meant.

Verdict

should-visit — Worth the detour, and the reason is a three percent beer. North London CAMRA's branch chair says this pub is 'well known for serving one of the best pints of Trinity, brewed by Tottenham's Redemption Brewery and at only 3% ABV', and adds that it is worth the visit for that alone. Cellar work at that strength is harder than at five percent, which is the craft argument. Alongside it sit up to three traditional ciders from handpump and bag in box, which won CAMRA London's Cider Pub of the Year in 2013 and again in 2016, and the branch finally made it Pub of the Year in 2022 after shortlisting it for years. The room deserves the second half of the sentence: a narrow late-Georgian house in a terrace built around 1764, Grade II listed, with a CAMRA National Inventory One Star for an interior of special national historic interest, green tiled dado, etched glass in a bowed bay window and two battered Charrington's lanterns still on the wall. Food is pork pies, cured meats and cheese, chosen to sit next to the beer. A piano plays every Thursday from eight and the bar takes card only. The food hygiene rating is a 3 from June 2021 and nobody has re-inspected since, which is worth knowing before you order the ploughman's.