Wishing Well, Palmers Green  

A mere stone's throw (careful now) from Palmers Green's other Irish pub, The Wishing Well is usually rammed to the quarter-gills with Celtic football tops, plaster-covered check shirts and people desperate to give you their tips on the gee-gees. The usual suspects were all on tap, but here it's pretty much Guinness, Guinness and more Guinness being drunk. Like its sister pub in Southgate, it favours VH1 Classic, and our recent visit on Grand National day allowed us an insight into the minds of its punters, who played darts with a dazzling accuracy given their apparent alcohol intake, randomly shouted "come on the Celtic" in almost Walford-esque brogues, and waltzed with one another to the greatest hits of Abba on the tellies. All very surreal and jolly. But rather like Eastenders, you feel like you're watching the show, rather than being part of it. Which may well be a good thing. You couldn't help but wonder that with another 6 hours of drinking time still on the clock, what sort of state they'd be in come last orders. Still, at least it's not a Wetherspoon's.

reviewed:
6/4/2004

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Sky TV (small screens)

darts

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