Review

If you were to play a word association game and somebody suggested rock'n'roll, what would your answers be? Dancing, perhaps? I think 'dancing' would be a prime-contender for the word most associated with rock'n'roll, two things inextricably linked. Yet the management of The Elephants Head, where rock'n'roll DJs can be found most evening, have decided to ban dancing! And as such, I am surprised that this place gets as busy as it does. The pub heaves with quiffs, 50s tattoos, blue suede shoes, and people whose parents aren't even old enough to remember the era they're imagining themselves in!

It's unclear whether The Elephants Head is named in honour of the boatrace on the women who drink in here, or that bastion of Victorian London, Joseph Merrick, as not many pachyderms are seen wandering down Camden High Street (at least ones not forced into spandex and thigh-high boots). Further investigation, however, reveals that a nearby brewery once brewed Elephants Pale Ale.

This is the ideal pub to watch the world pass through Camden, although the ever-present sunglasses salesman whose stall obscures the front window would be better-off waiting until it's actually sunny before plying his wares. A long room with an equally long bar, staffed by tattooed women, means that you're never too far from a window, which allows you to either watch the traffic stopped at the junction or gaze in wonder at the old TVAM (now MTV) building.

There is a quiz machine, although it's situated where playing it involves displacing a table full of drinkers, so obviously this isn't a means of entertainment that has high priority here. The main form of entertainment seems to be watching the endless stream of Japanese tourists wondering by, and occasionally venturing in; seeing the DJ spin his rare 50s classics; avoiding the drunks; and watching the punks, rockabillys and teddy-boys resisting the urge to boogie, as it's not allowed.

Review by mr_psm