The Highbury Pub stands at Bogstadveien 50 in Oslo's Majorstuen, an English football pub named for Arsenal's old ground and run as the home room of the club's supporters in the city.
The pub takes its name and its purpose from Highbury, Arsenal's stadium until 2006, and bills itself plainly as the home pub of Arsenal fans in Oslo, per its own site. The walls and the calendar follow English football, with Premier League matches the fixed point of the week.
Who would love it: the supporter who wants the match, a pint and a room full of fans singing along on a Saturday. Who would not: anyone after a quiet drink or a cocktail, because this is a screens-and-scarves football pub and it is loud when the game is on.
The room runs the English-pub template, dark wood and football colours angled toward the screens, the kind of supporters' room that fills with the away end on a derby weekend. The Highbury name sets the allegiance before you order, and the crowd skews Arsenal accordingly, though the screens carry the full slate.
Bogstadveien is the shopping street that runs down from Majorstuen, one of Oslo's main west-side hubs, with the Majorstuen metro and tram interchange a short walk up the road. That puts the pub on a direct line from the centre and the football grounds, which keeps the match-day traffic steady.
The order is a pint and a seat with a clear line to a screen, claimed early before a marquee kickoff. The kitchen runs pub fare to go with the football, and the room is built for watching rather than dining, so the plan is beer first. Skip turning up at kickoff for a north London derby, because the good seats are long gone by then.
The crowd is football-led and tribal in the best sense, an Arsenal core that swells for big EPL fixtures and European nights. The 1881.no listing files it among the city's pubs and sports bars, and Tripadvisor reviewers return to the matchday atmosphere and the welcome for travelling fans.
Hours run from the afternoon into the early morning, with earlier opening on match days to catch lunchtime kickoffs. Yelp reviewers single out the screens and the singing, with the recurring note that it is packed and noisy when a big game lands, which is the point rather than a flaw.
Best time to go is an hour before a Premier League kickoff, when you can still claim a table and the room is filling rather than full. For another supporters' room across town, compare it with Gamlebyen Sportsbar over in the old town.
The single-club identity is the draw and the warning. Being the Arsenal pub gives Highbury a ready-made community and a guaranteed full house on the club's big days, but it also means a rival's fan is a guest in someone else's living room on a derby weekend. Supporters of other clubs are welcome for the neutral fixtures, and the screens cover them, but the heart of the place is red and white.
The football calendar sets everything. Opening hours flex around kickoff times, the busiest sessions track the Premier League schedule rather than the weekend, and a midweek Champions League tie can fill the room as fast as a Saturday. It is a pub built around the fixture list, and it runs best when there is a match to watch, which in an English football season means most days of the week from August through May.
For more of the city's screens, see our sports bars in Oslo guide and the global sports bars list, or browse the wider Oslo bar guide.
