It probably looked good on paper: get rid of the old market and replace it with (to use construction company lingo) a 'vibrant mix of leisure and retail units'. So, now opposite Wood Green tube, local residents have to endure the gangs of kids and alcoholics who congregate outside this monstrosity of a building which houses a Chav's utopia that includes Wood Green's second cinema, a derelict former Yates's bar, McDonald's and this branch of Wetherspoon. The recent addition of a proper name (the pub was built on Wood Green's equivalent of Speaker's Corner) has coincided with a bit of a refurb and higher standards insofar as table cleaning and other basics are concerned. Changes aside, during the day, this one is popular with cinemagoers, shoppers, the retired and the unemployed. In the evening it also begins to includes anyone who bases their night on the lowest cost possible. As such, the place often has a rough transient feel, not helped by the dismissive service. All in all, drinking here is quite depressing and the place itself ugly and uninspired.
reviewed: 30/10/2008
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