The Hampstead Heritage Pub Crawl: The Flask

The Flask and Flask Walk

A beer!  A beer!  My kingdom for a beer!

Disappointed at the Spaniards, I headed back across the Heath to Hampstead village proper, hoping that there I could find a suitable pub and a proper pint.

The Flask has neither the history nor the Heath-side location of the Old Bull & Bush and the Spaniards.  It is a Victorian pub, built in 1874—almost brand new!—sitting a mere half-block off Hampstead High Street on Flask Walk.  The name derives from the flasks of “medicinal” well water sold here when the village was famous as a spa, the promise being the pure water could cure “idleness, dissipation and frivolity.”

And there I was, hoping to cultivate a little idleness, dissipation and frivolity.

The medicinal water has gone, but some of the Victorian charm remains.  The bar is divided in two, with a small “public bar” to the left and a larger “saloon bar” and conservatory to the right.  This was a common division in Victorian pubs—the public bar was for drinking and darts; the saloon bar offered entertainment for those willing to pay a separate admission fee or a higher price for the beer.  At The Flask, the two areas are separated by a beautiful glass divider installed in 1880, which is itself a protected heritage structure.  The public bar is still for drinking; the saloon bar and conservatory now house the "gastro" portion of the pub, and have been given over primarily to dining.

The famous 1880 glass divider, seen from the public bar.

Of course, I was there for a drink, so I went straight into the public bar.  The place was doing a healthy business, but the staff was nowhere to be seen.  I finally got fed up with waiting and went over to the saloon bar, where I was able to track down a server and order a pint.

The Flask is a Young’s pub —it is common in Britain for a pub to be owned by a brewery, operated by a tenant landlord, and serve primarily the owner’s products—so four of the five cask ales they were pouring were Young’s beers.  The fifth was a guest beer, the Wandle Ale from Sambrook’s Brewery in Battersea.  I’d recently had the Wandle (and enjoyed it immensely) at The Draft House, so I ordered a simple pint of Young’s bitter, and drank it standing at the bar.

And it was good.  Generally, I find the Young’s to be one of those ordinary bitters (Boddington's is another) that is just too mild in flavour to be a great beer—neither malty nor hoppy nor distinct enough to separate it from the pack.  But it’s a decent bitter, and it was clear that the bar staff cared for the beer properly and served it at an appropriate temperature and an appropriate (i.e., low) level of carbonation.

And seen from the saloon bar.

The verdict:  The Flask is a worthy contender for the pub crawl, but as they say in the football trade, it's not an automatic starter. The Flask meets all the criteria for the crawl, and it is well situated to be an intermediate refuelling stop on the way to or from pubs further down the High Street.

A hit! A palpable hit!

Up next: The Duke of Hamilton