Hen & Chickens

It’s always unnerving when a pub that’s packed to the rafters suddenly empties, leaving you alone with your gin and tonic. Luckily, the phenomenon can be easily explained at this stylish, oak-panelling-meets-fairy-lights-and-disco-balls pub on the fringes of upmarket Highbury. The arty types who gather round its wooden tables and sit on its leather stools disappear en masse to the upstairs comedy theatre at 9 P.M., where they can nurse their pints and heckle some of the finest names in stand-up.