The Lock is a mix - I've been there a couple of times and both times got a seat in the garden, which is easily the best spot in the place. The Sunday Roast is worth a trip. But it's true that the staff act like you owe them something, and the toilets are amongst the worst I've seen.

The food at the Lock Tavern is great and once you've been a few times you realise that the odd stares from the clientele are curiosity, which is not surprising in a place where celebrities are often spotted.

The Lock Tavern used to be an excellent pub. There was always a really good mix of people, trendies, geeks, chavs, old and young and they all created a good inoffensive atmosphere. In the last year it has turned into somewhere completely different.


The easy going clientelle has been replaced by of over-styled pretentious wannabees. I was beginning to think it had got its groove back until the DJs came on. I’m not sure what sound they were going for but it didn’t hit any marks.



There is however one thing that has remained the same at the Lock Tavern and that is the staff – they have always been awful!

The Lock Tavern is not a good place. It is over crowded and has filthy unisex toilets.

I went to the Lock Tavern last Saturday for my birthday with a group of friends and it was brilliant. If it wasn't for the garden shutting at 11pm, I'd have given it 5 stars. But get to The Lock Tavern early, or you'll never get a seat.

I booked a table at The Lock Tavern last week for my birthday and the staff were brilliant. It was a Friday night and they didn't have to take the booking in the first place as they would have filled it, but they were really helpful. They also put up with us arriving really late and held the table for us on the roof terrace. Consistently friendly staff, nicely prepared food with good, fresh ingredients and a great atmosphere. I live in South London so don't go out in Camden too often, but The Lock Tavern will definitely be my stop-off next time round.

The Camden Lock Tavern has to be the most pretentious bar in Camden with an appalling staff attitude. I rang up recently to book space for 30 people for my practice in celebration of a recent award and found the lady at the other end of the phone incredibly unhelpful and quite frankly rude. After putting down the phone I decided to take by business elsewhere namely the Camden Arms - not that the Lock Tavern was bovvered, in true Catherine Tate style! 30 people in a bar on a Monday afternoon is a lot of money and repeat custom that the Lock Tavern missed out on because of some snotty bar person! Don’t bother going, there are far cooler places to go in Camden where memberships a smiling face!

The Lock Tavern is is a truly trendy bar. The staff are extremely hot, especially the two blonde barmaids. Gentlemen you should come just for a look at them.

Ladies, the guys are pretty fit as well, as my girlfriends tell me. The music at The Lock Tavern is fantastic. You are always ensured a great night.

I love it and will be back very very soon.

What a night. Even as I approached the famously beautifully-staffed Lock Tavern I felt ready to pop. The perfectly tarnished sofas, the perfectly cracked black wood flooring, the altercation of nonsensical wall design...

After a G & T or two at The Lock Tavern I was ready to shove my job in waste-of-space design and apply for a position in bartendering. Love the barkeep, love the drinks, love the blondes behind the bar.

The Lock Tavern is a really good pub, still rammed and still showing little sign of stopping after having provided us with three years of far more than one would expect from a saturday night or sunday in Camden.

A firm favourite of mine, I like the fact The Lock Tavern doesn't pretend to be a bar perfect for sitting in and chatting for hours over a half a pint of bitter but it does exactly what it says it will. Provides good times, good food (recommend the roasts, always nice, massive and an amazing hangover cure), nice booze, amazing music and the best in local events in a trendy and attractive setting surrounded by primarily nice, interesting, trendy and attractive people.

The staff deal with the pace of service pretty well and on the most part are really nice, they could smile a little more, agreed - but I like the fact they look very much the part too!

I've lived within a couple of roads of The Lock Tavern for years and unless you want an over-priced gastro offering, a manky studenty live music venue, a chav pub or to be served by someone in fetish gear with a mohican higher than the Blackpool Tower, the usual loners and moaners that like to attack a place because of its extreme popularity will be pushed to do much better in Camden.

To say that The Lock Tavern is an awful pub wouldn't be fair. There are clearly a lot of people who love the atmosphere, love the chance to mingle with a distinct element of society, love the staff, love the service, love the music and love the food. On certain days of the week I would count myself as someone who finds The Lock Tavern to be a good place to go for a beer and a laugh.

Mondays and Tuesdays leave The Lock Tavern with a reasonable number of normal people and allows it to be somewhere where you can go to enjoy yourself. Other days of the week see a dramatic shift.

The atmosphere is heavily tainted by hugely inflated, yet incredibly fragile egos that the pubgoers cower behind as they fight to maintain the image that they feel you need to live up to when drinking in such a renowned place.

At the weekends, the music is loud enough to give the vacuous clientele a reason for their sporadic and low quality conversation. The quality of staff varies too. A few of the bar staff are friendly and good at what they do, but not all. Whether the attitude of the staff has given the pub its overwhelmingly poncy feel and hence drawn the type of customers that they have or if the type of people that frequent the place has attracted staff that prioritise staring into the mirror to get every over-gelled strand of hair exactly right over serving customers isn't clear.

The pub has clearly hit the jackpot in that it attracts people who like to spend in the way that people do when working hard to hide their unaffordable and oversized credit card bills and for that reason I give the pub owners incredible respect for their business plan, they've clearly cracked the secret recipe to making a big pot of cash.

I live on the road that The Lock Tavern is on and walk past it on most weekends - seeing people that have travelled from far and wide to queue to get into this overhyped pub never fails to bring a smile to my face.

The Lock Tavern is a terrible pub. Through attempts to become desperately cool the pub has unfortunately neglected the importance of a) cleaning the premises thoroughly and b) employing staff that give a tuppence-worth about showing customers any sign of respect.



It's a real shame as the garden and roof terrace at The Lock Tavern are essentially good features. I will never elect to go there myself, but undoubtedly will have to attend the usual birthday drinks that end up being organised in such awful surroundings.

The Lock Tavern is a good pub. What particularly impressed me was the fantastic staff who toil endlessly to supply a steady flow of alcohol to a mix of locals, wacky Americans demanding ridiculous cocktails and filthy Australians demanding pitchers of VB. They're never hungover, always helpful, and the spattering of witty and charming Scandinavian barstaff make every visit to The Lock Tavern a joy.

I love The Lock Tavern it's one of my most favourite pubs in London. Sunday sessions are awesome and the Bloody Mary’s are fantastic. Music is usually some sort of Rock and Roll DJ and there are lots of trendy types in there. Staff are not good however, extremely rude and quite into themselves - don't ever ask for a Cosmopolitan, they'll turn their noses up at you!
But if you can ignore the staff, you'll have a great time with a bunch of friends. Definitely worth booking a table at The Lock Tavern on a Sunday.

The Lock Tavern for me is relaxed and inviting (beer garden which is always hard to find in London). You get the chance to let your hair down after having a few drinks with friends and just continue to chill out.
Pretentious is not a word I would use.

If you like pretence, poseurs and Kensington prices in Camden, you've found your place at the Lock Tavern. Snooty is only the beginning. Always overcrowded (which doesn't mean good) and painfully fake.