King William IV

A very traditional English pub in a stunning location! I like the staff and inviting atmosphere… The food is also always good and a nice spot to sit in the sun!

I visit this pub occasionally and enjoy a cup of coffee in the gorgeous garden with a cigarette. This used to be a gay pick-​up joint. It takes me back to 1991 when I was 16. It was the first gay pub I ever visited and I was quite a regular like something out of the ABBA song «Does your mother know that you’re out? You look young to be searching for that kind of fun». It’s a shame the only remnants of it being a gay bar are a few gay magazines tucked away in the corner — it was so atmospheric years ago. The food is okay and so are the staff. Love the smoking area and that’s what does it for me and the memories of the gay scene when I was a teenager. Richly decorated and old-​fashioned pub.

This pub is much to blame for my many hangovers, welcomes and send offs, uncontrollable laughter fits and even a date or two.
It is hard to remember the food as clearly as I would like for my usual reviews on Unilocal due to the drinking that follows the meals… so I will focus on the drinks and bar snacks.
Their chunky chips are those thick cut sort, potatoe-​y and good for lining of the stomach — comes with your standard ketchup and mayo, but their mild salsa and guacamole are additional costs but well worth trying, especially if a few of you get chips. Nuts are standard, wasabi style nuts are good but often not in stock.
The olives are awful, you can taste the brine which is also bit sour. The crisps are usually the Pipers & co brand which are great in crunch and flavour — I hope they stock the spicy tomato flavour soon. There may be other simple snacks that I have not discovered as of yet!
Most pubs are hit and miss, The King William is hit and somewhere just before miss, even when it is not busy there are nice pockets of intimate spaces to sit, catch up and unwind. even when that unwinding leaves you with endless searches on Google on «The best hangover cure». The staff are chatty and friendly, but most of all, attentive.
The drinks are varied with your usual pints, wines, spirits but in terms of cocktails, purely on a price point of view, at £7 for the knowledge behind the bar, the cocktail making itself and the quality of the end product, I’d choose a better bar that specializes in cocktails. Pints are your usual Amstel, Kronenbourg, Fosters and the Portuguese Sagres. Just ask if you are curious about them and I am sure they will also let you sample them.
Truthfully, no matter how many wine tasting evenings or even holidays I go on, I can never spit out the wine.(. what a waste?!) so I wouldn’t be able to advise on the wines as such. But prices are relative to the area, but at around £4.50 per pint and £16 for house bottles of red/​white there is much desire to hop on the tube and into town, from a price point of view. When I am sober enough or in doubt I use the app Vivino.
This is or was a LGBT friendly pub, but you don’t remember when your there. The crowd is so varied with Royal Free Hospital just around the corner. The music tends to be pop, RnB and some older tunes that take you back. but not loud as it does not have a dancefloor. whether you make your own dancefloor in the moment is up to you! You will Shazam some tracks, I am sure.
Overall go there and have a drink, if you are in the neighborhood or a neighbor, definitely go in the summer as the patio at the back is continuously updated under the new management and spacious. I will review the food at some point. but in the meanwhile, see you there for a pint or two?

Worst pub I’ve been to. The employees were rude and dismissive. I ordered nachos and wasn’t expecting anything amazing. After eating a little less than half I discovered the chips weren’t tortilla or corn chips but cool ranch Doritos. Nachos aren’t healthy meal by any means however I try my best to stay away from processed food and unnecessary preservatives like (cool ranch Doritos). Was really annoyed to find out after the fact. My sisters meat was quite tough and mostly fatty. We left the pub with most of our food untouched. Quite disappointing :/

I don’t know if this is still a gay pub or not but reading the below reviews was the only evidence I saw of it. Stayed here in Elizabeth room upstairs which was very comfortable and a bargain at 70 quid and had two excellent meals in the pub. Friendly staff, wifi works perfectly and you’re in the middle of Hampstead which is beautiful.

Terrible pub, run down, unfriendly, beer garden is a dump, food is over priced and awful. Beer and wine selection is poor. There are many better pubs in Hampstead. Avoid!

We don’t frequent here often even though it’s one of the few old pubs left in Hampstead. Why? Well we’ve only eaten here once and the food wasn’t very good. And inside the music is dsimal, it’s like they’re playing Capital or Magic or some other crap. Stuff like the Saturdays or some other top 40 crap get a better music choice on please and we’ll be back more often. they also have fireplaces that don’t get used in winter, such a shame. The saving grace of this place is the little garden out back, great for summer nights. The management are really missing a trick here.

This was where I discovered the Pimm’s Cup. Yes, I know it’s a prissy summery drink for the Wimbledon crowd, but I am a huge fan of the special swizzle stick and the fruit on the bottom.
KWIV was one of the first pubs I visited in London — it was one of the earlier stops on my fresher’s pub crawl with my hall and its weekly pub quizzes hosted by a drag queen and Thursday £3 cocktails quickly made this local pub a favorite among my Hampstead friends and me.
The bartenders here were awesome — they never really minded when I would get frustrated with all the British coins and just handed them a palmful of loose change for them to pick out.
I know British pubs don’t really do cocktails or shots, but KWIV has a few good speciality cocktails (the make really pretty layered drinks!) and a large variety of shots available in addition to lots of good beer and cider on tap/​in bottles. I’ve never tried the food (the exchange rate was NOT in my favor, so I would just get a crêpe from the stand outside or some crisps from Tesco on the walk back to the halls if I were hungry), but I’ve seen other people order off the menu and it always looked delicious!
The seating in this place is good for groups of various sizes (I really like the high tables) and the smaller tables by the windows are really nice for people watching.
Honestly, I had no idea that this was a prominent gay pub until my last month in London. I just got a really cool vibe from the place from my first visit and kept coming back with my friends!
P. S. Did you know this place is haunted as well? (See the «History» blurb on their website!)

Had a nice little lunch here with my London friends. Tapas menu and a side of fries really hit the spot after an overnight from Miami. We had small plates of Beef, Chicken and Shrimp. All were very well seasoned and tasty. Beef was especially nice. The bar keep was especially friendly and attentive. Certainly would dine here again.

A solid 4 star local gay bar that doesn’t have any kind of sceney hangups, the King William is a beacon of rainbows and mulled wine halfway to the top of that glute-​burning Hampstead hill.
I love a gay bar with a sense of normality, perfect for after work drinks or
meeting up with friends in the North…
They have what I would consider to be one of the best mulled wines I’ve had over the chilly holiday season. Cute neighborhood, cute patio out back, cute crêpe stand outside, you should probably stop by here if you’re in the mood for a cheeky drink with the gays.

Here’s the thing: I’ve been to my share of gay pubs in London. Dives, chic, clubs – I’ve done it all. I actually quite like this place because it’s clean, nicely decorated and a place where geys OVER the ages of 18 – 21 can sit, have a glass of wine/​pint, and catch-​up.
I think the highlight of this place is the staff– super friendly and accommodating, at least when we went. Even when I accidentally knocked over a wine glass (no, I was NOT drunk just clumsy as hell) they brushed it off and didn’t cut me off. :) Another one actually stopped and had a chat with us because he heard our american accents.
Overall, I’d go back, if only because I live in the general area and really enjoyed the staff.

This is an all-​round decent pub. It isn’t going to make any waves in my book, but they certainly get the job done and I would never sniff at meeting for a drink here.
As the earlier reviews mention, there are plenty of different areas to sit, whether it is in a group or in a twosome, and the pub has a great spacious feel. There is also an enclosed beer garden that is great to lounge in on a hot day.
The food and drink menus are both impressive with plenty of variety and I will certainly be back for a meal.
King William IV professes to have wifi but they couldn’t get it working whilst I was there and they seemed a little unsure as to why anyone would want to use public wifi. ‘Erm because it is the 21^st century.‘
Good pub but nothing flashy.

I went in here for a pub lunch with a group of about 8 friends in the summer. All we wanted was a good meal before going for a walk on the common. Sadly, we made the mistake of choosing this place.
There were two problems — firstly the staff were rude, and secondly they forgot my order — this latter problem was made worse by the fact it had taken over an hour for the food to come and it turned out they didn’t even have the veggie sausages I’d ordered in the first place. I ended up just eating chips.
It is a gay pub, which we didn’t realise until about half way through our visit as it looks just like an ordinary pub. This wouldn’t have been a problem, but I’m not sure the staff welcome straight people if the way they treated us was anything to go by.

This is the main pub on Hampstead High Street, it’s quite big, a few different rooms and a pretty big beer garden round the side. I’ve only been in here once during the day and it was really quiet. It’s a good place to come in for a drink — break from shopping, chill out after a walk on the heath or whatever else has been happening on the heath.
This is a gay pub principally but I understand that a lot of the old regulars don’t bother anymore. There have been numerous refurbishments and some people think it’s changed and the atmosphere isn’t the same anymore — a shame for one of (if not the?) oldest gay pubs in London.
Not a great pub in my opinion but still a bit of a landmark either way.

The William IV feels a bit more like a country pub than a London boozer, thanks to the location in leafy Hampstead, and its lovely beer garden.
Located 5 minutes’ walk from Hampstead Underground, The King Willy (as it’s known) claims to be the oldest gay pub in London, attracting a discreet gay crowd since the 1930’s. It’s rather more up-​front these days, with a rainbow flag outside.
The pub serves a decent range of real ales and a wide range of reasonably-​priced food. The crowd is a friendly gay/​straight mix, with a smattering of loyal locals.
The recent refurbishment has given it a fresher, more modern feel, but some punters feel it has lost some of its character. Occasional entertainment nights.