This pub is not only a grade II listed building, it is also a One Star pub on the Campaign for Real Ale’s (CAMRA) National Inventory with an interior of special national historic interest, and the description is as follows: "Built 1899 (in carved panels on exterior) and subject to a partial restoration by Roderick Gradidge for Maxwell Joseph in 1969. Four storey building of red brick. The present layout of a single space with an island bar was originally three spaces – small public bar at the front left accessed from the front left hand door; a bar at the rear left accessed from a door down the left hand side of the building; and a U-shaped saloon in the right hand half of the ground floor. There was also a club room on the first floor. A plan dated 1955 still showed the 3 bars but by 1961 a screen with a door in it situated at the rear was removed leaving a small public bar on the front left and the remaining three-quarters of the ground floor was the enlarged saloon bar. In 1969 the two small partitions that created the public bar were removed and sections of the original partitions with good engraved and faceted glass were reused to form alcoves. The former Saloon Bar entrance on the right has decorative transfer-printed tiles below the dado rail and up to the frieze that look original. There is a good curved screen from this now main entrance including etched and frosted glass panels featuring birds and flowers.

The island bar counter has fronts of three designs (reflecting the three original rooms) – that on the rear section with some shell scallop semi-circular sections looks genuinely old; other parts look more inter-war. The island bar gantry is mostly original with mirrored panels and shelves held up by slender pillars. The two squared pillars holding it up to the ceiling look modern and there are two arches for staff – but what date were they created? There is an original fireplace in the north-east wall; lots of good mirrors including a Youngers one (the owners in 1961 seem to have been William Younger & Co.) and rare blown glass Victorian gin bottle on the bar back. Note the old bell pushes on the right hand wall – do these indicate fixed seating lined the wall until 1969 or are they additions from 1969? According to the listed description, upstairs, in the former club room, now a dining room, two late C19 cast-iron fireplaces, and stained and painted glass panels to the upper sashes in the style of the Aesthetic Movement; these windows were introduced in 1969 from a demolished house in Marlborough Crescent, Bedford Park, West London; more such glass on the first-floor landing."

The listing description is as follows: “Public house. Dated 1899 in carved panels on the external stacks to Camden Walk and Islington Green; partial restoration by Roderick Gradidge for Maxwell Joseph, 1969. Red brick with stone dressings, roof of Welsh slate. Four storeys; the pub has two elaborate fronts of almost equal importance: four windows to Camden Walk, three to Islington Green. The ground-floor frontage stands forward of the rest of the building: four bays to Camden Walk and two-and-a-half to Islington Green with one angled entrance bay at the corner. Corinthian columns flanking flat-arched windows, some of which are bowed, with round-arched glazing bars and engraved and faceted glass, some replaced in exact replica in 1969; decorative wrought-iron work to entry to former saloon bar. The upper windows have unusual heads of intersecting segments and circles, and cornices to first and second floors; two small gables at the junction of the two main fronts with ball finials in place of acroteria with carved roundels and the initials 'CD' (?). Corbelled external stacks run from the first floor between the second and third bays to Camden Walk and between the first and second bays to Islington Green; larger shaped gables to the ends of either front; mansard roof with decorative wrought-iron work to the corner. The ground floor of the pub has lost its original divisions into public and saloon bar and its present form is due to the restoration of 1969. It consists of a single space with an island bar, part or most of which is original. Sections of the original partitions with good engraved and faceted glass were reused to form alcoves; tilework to the former Saloon Bar entrance with decorative transfer-printed tiles below the dado rail and to the frieze; original fireplace in the north-east wall; upstairs, in the present dining room, two late C19 cast-iron fireplaces, and stained and painted glass panels to the upper sashes in the style of the Aesthetic Movement; these windows were introduced in 1969 from a demolished house in Marlborough Crescent, Bedford Park, West London; more such glass on the first-floor landing. (Information from Roderick Gradidge).”

The WhatPub link is here: WhatPub/Camden Head

The Pub Heritage Group link is here: PHG/Camden Head

The Camden Head featured on the Evening Crawl of Islington on 6 December 2006, and the Rows, Squares and Terraces: Evening Crawl of Islington on 17 August 2011.