Once a mellow backstreet local, the George now swarms with rowdy, slumming-it art students in ridiculous outfits on Fridays and Saturdays, to the point where the landlord has even hired a bouncer.
As the pub’s popularity has risen, so have the prices; you can drink for less in Mayfair. Still, catch it on a quieter night, and this remains a great pub, a mixed coterie of longtime Dalstonians and recent arrivals shooting the breeze over pints (Pride, Seafarer, George Gale HSB) and a jukebox-led soundtrack of classic cuts and hipster-friendly obscurities.
The raffish decor (yellowing walls, stuffed animals) will be familiar to anyone who’s drunk at Stoke Newington’s Shakespeare or the Royal Inn on the Park in Victoria Park, two of the dozen-ish pubs under the same umbrella, but the George retains its own identity to the last.