Good Reader, Hornsey

23/08/24 - "Now an upmarket gastropub with no sports TV, no pool or darts. There are now 2 cask beers and the plan is to add a third. The derivation of the name is covered in full on their website - well worth a read.

02/01/24 - Princess Alexandra on Park Road N8 closed down. Former owners said they were fed up working 80 hours a week for not much money.

From Propel 2018 - Nick Ford, former head of food at 40-strong pub company Antic London, and Hayley Chappell, have taken over a Crouch End pub owned by Ei Group. Ei Publican Partnerships has contributed £108,000 alongside £60,000 put up by first-time publicans Ford and Chappell to revitalise the 120-year-old Princess Alexandra. Ford said: “It has always been an ultimate goal and ambition of mine to run my own pub. It’s the right pub. I’ve lived in the Crouch End area for eight years and have got to know the building and the area really well. I felt it needed a pub the people here could call their own.”

The pub has now reverted to its original name as it was when the original pub was built in 1896, the current version was built in 1954, contemporary with the adjacent estate. It changed name in 2008 to Villiers Terrace, renamed again in 2014 as Alex. Changed hands again in 2017. Several connecting rooms along the front, plus a conservatory, all now refurbished. A leafy terrace on the right and another outside area at the other end.