Cricklewood Broadway's Grade II Victorian palace — the 1899 Shoebridge & Rising pub on CAMRA's national historic interiors register.
Published Sep 22, 2025 Last reviewed May 13, 2026 · How we pick bars · By Priya Nair
The Crown stands on Cricklewood Broadway in a terracotta Grade II listed Victorian palace built in 1899 by the architects Shoebridge & Rising. CAMRA places the pub on its National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors with a Two-Star rating — the second-highest category for original interior preservation. Londonist's "London's Most Beautiful Pubs" feature has named the Crown a recurring entry.
The right visitor wants a serious Victorian pub interior, a Sunday roast, and a quiet pint of cask among ornate ceilings, etched glass and decorative fireplaces. The wrong visitor wants a craft-cocktail bar, a brunch spot, or central London convenience — Cricklewood is zone 2/3 and the pub is built for sitting, not for queueing two-deep. The pub closed in August 2022, was taken over by AG Hotels Group, and reopened on 30 April 2023 after a front-area refurbishment.
The public bar retains the ornate plaster ceiling, etched glass, and decorative fireplaces that earned the CAMRA Two-Star listing. The 2023 refurbishment under AG Hotels Group modernised the front areas without disturbing the protected interior fabric, and the pub now connects via a glass-and-concrete passage to the 152-room hotel built behind in 2001. Cricklewood Town Team's reopening write-up called the refresh "respectful of the listed interior — you walk in and you are still in an 1899 pub."
Order a pint of cask ale (£6–7, the rotation tends to include a Twickenham or Sambrook's tap) and a Sunday roast (£19, served noon to 5pm Sundays). The wine list runs short and useful at around £9 per glass; Guinness on tap is the second-most-poured pint in the room per the bar staff's own tally to AG Hotels Group's blog. The cocktail list is short and not the reason to come.
Skip ordering a complicated cocktail or a Negroni at the bar — the Crown is built around the cellar and the wine list, not a bartending programme. CAMRA's Greater London Pub Group listing notes the cask line-up as the buying signal.
Cricklewood and Kilburn locals at the public bar; Sunday roast bookings fill the saloon side from 12:30 onwards. The pub has long anchored Cricklewood's significant Irish community, a connection that runs back through the twentieth century per the Layers of London historical record and that still shows in the Guinness pour-rate and the regular trad-music sessions.