BRB at The Gate, Alexandra Park

I used to frequent this pub between 1980 and 1991 when I lived first in in Tower Terrace and then at 469 High Road Wood Green. I think I first drank there in September 1979 in fact on a visit to London from the North. I now live in Australia and miss the London pubs if not the weather. I met my first wife in The Gate in 1987 when she was the barmaid. I was a member of the Starting Gate quiz league team that was victorious in the Taylor Walker North London League in 1987 and 1988. I went back about five years ago and it wasn't much different, but I'll be back with some of the old crowd on August 28th to see how it has changed.

The Starting Gate played a big part in my life all those years ago, when it was a classic local pub with great regulars - a mixture of locals, a bit of a gay crowd and also labourers, students and old timers: a real London local pub in fact..At that time most of the other pubs in Wood Green, (The Nightingale, The Fishmongers Arms, The Nelson, The Duke of Edinburgh, the dump opposite the tube station, the name of which escapes me)were really very bad - so the SG stood out.

24 Jun 2005 03:12