It’s coming home, possibly. Except, it’s not, it never does. Hopes are high for Southgate’s men and while England might be the odds-on favourites alongside France, who can really put themselves through the torture of yet more crushed dreams?
The 50-plus football matches over the next month might seem inescapable as the chants of Three Lions echoing around the city, but there are a few footy-free havens in town.
These are the pubs going against the tide, against the current, stubbornly not showing the football: they’re not doing Instagram posts with badly cropped photos of men called Gareth and Phil having beers, or laying on football-themed specials like “Ronaldonuts” (ridiculous), and we doubt they’ll even have Radio Five Live playing in the background.
No, these are the angelic pubs swimming in a sea of football-fueled nationalism, standing in determined opposition, eschewing fan-chasing in favour of the simplest pleasure a pub can provide: the chance to see friends and drink well.
Here then is a run-down of the best pubs in town which are not showing the Euros. Of course, if you’ve landed on this page by mistake and are looking for somewhere decent to catch a game, we have a list for that too.
The Hope
Rated as one of London’s finest pubs, this very unassuming spot is a CAMRA-lovers paradise. The proudly local spot is owned by locals, having avoided closure in 2010. The website states: “We have No TVs, No Radios and No Muzak - Bliss”. Bliss seems exactly the right word.
48 West Street, Carshalton SM5 2PR, hopecarshalton.co.uk
The Coach and Horses
Norman’s in Soho is a real publicans’ pub. It’s where you still find all sorts of journalists, writers, actors, dancers and reprobates, harking back to a time many nostalgically refer to as “old Soho”. There are no screens and no speakers, just conversation.
29 Greek Street, W1D 5DH, coachandhorsessoho.pub
The Hero
Maida Vale’s new stunner of a pub is so quietly elegant it’d never do anything as gauche as show the football. The W9 locals — and you — can rest easy, sink into a leather booth, and sink a few cold ones.
55 Shirland Road, W9 2JD, theherow9.com
The Grapes, Limehouse
In the Nineties and early Noughties, many older pubs with long Victorian bars within opted to anoint their boozers with the then brand-new advent of a flat-screen TV. We marvelled at the LED picture quality, but what we gained in definition we lost in conversation: a key value of a good pub. The Grapes is a TV-free pub, one of the many things maintaining it as one of east London’s best.
76 Narrow Street, E14 8BP, thegrapes.co.uk
The Dublin Castle
The Dublin simply couldn’t show the Euros, as such an event series would get in the way of what's really important, and that's the live music. The legendary Camden haunt has hosted musicians from Amy Winehouse to Madness to Billy Bragg, and features a rotating roster of real ales and local beers to keep proper drinkers coming back time and again.
94 Parkway, NW1 7AN, thedublincastle.com
The Sun Tavern
Another Irish bar with a well-earned reputation for live music, the Sun over in Bethnal Green has a sister brand round the corner named the Umbrella Cider House (which is showing the matches). This leaves the Sun beautifully free of footy fans and everything they bring with them (mainly noise and longer waits for beers).
441 Bethnal Green Road, E2 0AN, thesuntavern.co.uk
French House
Back in Soho and the French House seems, as ever, blissfully unaware of the troubles of the outside world. It’s a little oasis where time slows down to a crawl, a place to sink an indecent number of half-pints and lazily lumber upstairs for an oyster and calves liver on toast.
49 Dean Street, W1D 5BG, frenchhousesoho.com
The Auld Shillelagh
Dubbed by some as “the most authentic Irish pub outside of Ireland”, the Auld Shillelagh is a surprisingly large haunt with trad folk music most days and a fiercely loyal crowd of locals. Fortunately, the beer garden at the back is only for summertime drinking, and they won’t roll out a dodgy TV for the footy, like a substitute teacher.
105 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 0UD, theauldshillelagh.co.uk
The Harp
A tidy roster of real ales mark this central Covent Garden pub apart, and when those big stained-glass windows at the front open up, there are few better seats to have in town to watch the world go by.
47 Chandos Place, WC2N 4HS, harpcoventgarden.com
The Devonshire
There’s little else we can say about the Devonshire. It’s now ranked as the ninth best restaurant in the UK and the best new gastropub in Britain, as per the National Restaurant Awards, and as if we couldn’t love it any more, they’re not going to be showing the footy. Heaven.
17 Denman Street, W1D 7HW, devonshiresoho.co.uk
The Wenlock Arms
A rickety old piano, a well-used darts board, bags of Tayto crisps: the hallmarks of a fabulous pub and, coupled with a TV free main room, the Wenlock is a quiet boozer which anyone between Angel and Old Street should make a beeline for.
