Gastropub Near Me in Islington: The Drapers Arms' Suet Pie and Sunday Feasts

The Drapers Arms is a Grade II listed pub built around 1830 at 44 Barnsbury Street, Islington, London N1 1ER, roughly midway between Angel and Highbury & Islington stations. Anyone searching gastropub near me in north London should know that the menu is rewritten every day, the kitchen opens at noon, and the suet crust beef, chorizo, bacon and mushroom pie costs £19, with £1 of each one going to Action Against Hunger.

The building was put up by the Drapers' livery company around 1830, and CAMRA's listing notes it probably began as three separate bars. Islington's Labour Party is reputedly said to have been founded in an upstairs room. The pub reopened in 2001 after more than three years shut, closed again in 2008, and was bought and relaunched by Ben Maschler, son of restaurant critic Fay Maschler, with Time Out dating the reopening to 2009.

The refit opened the ground floor around a central bar and three fireplaces, mixing pub furniture, dining tables and settees. Hot Dinners called it one of the prettiest pubs in the borough, tucked down a side street away from Upper Street. OpenTable's listing puts it as welcoming to one person with a beer and a newspaper as to a group having a special meal, and names Aurelien Durand as executive chef.

Because the menu changes daily, dishes come and go, but the dinner sheet for Friday 16 October 2026 is a fair guide. Steak tartare with beef fat toast cost £13 and French onion soup with Comté £12. A baked Camembert with bone marrow, sourdough and pickles, for two, was £22. Grilled half chicken with pommes frites and mushroom sauce came in at £26, and a side of pommes frites alone is £6.50.

The pie is the dish to plan around. The suet crust holds beef, chorizo, bacon and mushroom, and the menu warns you to allow 25 minutes, so order it with the first drink rather than after starters. For pudding, the Basque cheesecake at £10.50 is the safer choice; the fig and almond tart at £9.50 is lighter. At lunch the same day, a whole plaice with capers, parsley and lemon butter cost £18.

The Drapers does its best work with sharing dishes. On the 16 October dinner menu, a seven-hour shoulder of lamb with anchovy-braised beans for two was £62, and a 35-day aged côte de boeuf with pommes frites, salad and peppercorn sauce, for two or three, was £100. These are the plates that fill the room on Friday nights, carved at the table in front of groups celebrating birthdays.

For Sunday groups, the pub publishes a separate feasting menu for autumn 2026: a whole roast chicken serving two or three for £55, a rolled stuffed pork belly with crackling serving three for £72, and a forerib of beef with Yorkshire puddings for two or three at £100. A set autumn feasting menu costs £58 a head for three courses or £50 for two, and it needs ten days' notice.

Tables are booked through OpenTable from the pub's own bookings page and are allocated for at least two hours. If the online system shows no availability, the pub asks you to call or email rather than give up, and larger groups should phone. Garden tables can only be requested by phone or email, not online, which is worth knowing on a warm autumn weekend when the back garden fills first.

The kitchen serves Monday to Saturday from noon to 3pm and again from 6pm to 10:30pm, and on Sunday from noon to 8:30pm. Upstairs, a private dining room holds about 45 for dinner or 60 for drinks, and private hire takes up to 50. BYO wine is allowed with a corkage fee, and OpenTable lists counter seating, fireplaces and wheelchair access among the features.

An honest warning: this is not the place for a whispered conversation on a Friday or Saturday night. OpenTable reviewers in September and October 2026 complained that the room was so loud they had to shout, and one diner on 9 October reported a 90-minute wait for food despite being seated on time. Weekend evenings are a scrum of Barnsbury regulars and birthday tables, and the kitchen can fall behind.

The fix is timing. A weekday lunch at noon, or a Sunday table after 5pm when the roast crowd has gone, gets you the same cooking at half the volume. September diners described the Sunday lunch as an institution for a reason and as great value, so if you only come once, make it a Sunday. Time Out once summed up the crowd as well-to-do Islingtonians glad to be away from Upper Street.

The walk from Highbury & Islington, on the Victoria line and the Overground, takes about thirteen minutes through Barnsbury's Georgian squares, while Angel on the Northern line is about fifteen minutes away. The Almeida Theatre on Almeida Street, N1 1TA, is roughly seven minutes from the pub on foot, which makes the Drapers a natural pre-theatre dinner if you book the 6pm sitting and order the pie straight away.

Plan B if the room is full: walk the seven minutes to Upper Street, then come back for a later table once the theatre crowd has left. On cask, the pub keeps Harveys Sussex Best alongside craft keg pale ales and lagers, a choice made possible because it is free of tie to any brewery.

Address: 44 Barnsbury Street, Islington, London N1 1ER. Stations: Highbury & Islington, about 13 minutes on foot, or Angel, about 15 minutes. Kitchen: Monday to Saturday 12pm to 3pm and 6pm to 10:30pm, Sunday 12pm to 8:30pm. Book via OpenTable; garden tables by phone or email only. Parking is limited pay-and-display, with residents' bays usable after 6:30pm and at weekends.

Who it suits: Sunday roast groups, pre-theatre diners heading to the Almeida, and anyone who wants a pint of cask beer in a Georgian room with a real fire. Who it does not suit: diners after a quiet Saturday dinner, or anyone in a hurry on a busy night. Ask in the Karpo APP for other Islington pubs within walking distance if you want a quieter drink afterwards.