It was a warm summer day after the first lockdown when we rediscovered the Sir Richard Steeles in Belsize Park. We’d been on the hunt for a new pub quiz to try when we spotted manager Steve finishing off a chalkboard for one he was hosting that evening. In his always cheerful and welcoming way, he invites us along and we've been regulars ever since. We caught up with him at the start of the year to see how the lockdown had been effecting the pub and get his opinion on the pandemic.
Dating back to Victorian times, the pub was once famous with celebrities and Hampstead drinkers but had gained a rough reputation in recent years as it passed through various managers, so after taking over The Steeles in February, Steve aimed to totally transform the pub - bringing in a younger crowd with themed movie nights, pub quizzes, craft beers and gastro dishes on the menu.
"There was a crowd that wasn't the best. So before the pandemic hit, I was concentrating on getting rid of that reputation. We wanted to make a community and somewhere you could bring your family. This pub is now a place where people can come in and feel welcome. A high percentage of women come in here that would never have come in here before, because they now feel safe.”
With a constantly rotating selection of craft beers and spirits to try behind the bar, Steve will often surprise you with a taster glass of a beer or craft gin he’s just got in stock. “I came from a branded background with restaurants and fine dining but then moved into pubs because I felt they were more honest. The Steeles is independent, which is great because the choice of beers we have available is what we've chosen and we can work with new spirit companies. I'm not having Hendrix because it's everywhere and you can buy it at the supermarket. That’s the thing about being an independent, you can just feel when somewhere is independent!”
In the summer, you’ll find a sizzling BBQs in the beer garden, roasts served on Sundays and new specials on the menu each week. "I like the juxtaposition of modern things like burgers with the traditional like ham & eggs, it's just that mix is nice. I'm not one for bar snacks, I never was, but they are popular. It’s not in my culture to have scotch eggs and sausage rolls as that's not part of Irish pub tradition. As you go into an Irish pub, you have a skin full of drink and then a toasted sandwich and a soup. There's no bar snacks.”
However, it’s the Pub Quiz that has been the real highlight with quirky questions, free pint bonus rounds and craft gin rewarded to the winners. "I suppose the quiz that I wanted to do was an anti-quiz quiz. So if you're a quiz fanatic, it might not necessarily be for you because it's not questions about science or sport or dates. Our quiz is based around the strengths of the people that in the pub or things I’ve recently been taken in by like Japanese film posters for American films. They’re absolutely crazy - cool surrealist art pieces!"
Keeping in touch with the pub’s community has been really important to Steve during lockdown, offering takeaway and keeping in constant contact with his community via social media with a virtual pub quiz, recipes and movie recommendations. "It's that old adage - 'if you've got a problem, talk to a psychiatrist or a publican' and that's always been the case, they always have the answers for you.”
During our interview, Steve remained his cheerful self though The Steeles felt like a ghost pub with chairs stacked on tables, plastic wrap covering the taps and the tree which looked so lovely at Christmas standing naked and drying out in the corner. Thanks to his 20 years experience, the pub has weathered the lockdowns a lot better than others in the area by keeping a lean stock, adapting to the new normal and even predicting that Christmas would be cancelled.
"The lockdown that happened after Halloween was the one that really shocked and hit a lot of pubs because they were building up for Christmas. Most pubs and restaurants will do 60% more trade than they would do on normal week. As a group, we kept tight control on what we were doing - ordering on a daily basis and making sure that the orders were small and just what we needed for the average takings. In the third lockdown, we lost a value of £120 - £130 per week worth of food but I know businesses that lost £1000 - £2000."
"Boris has had so much stick for not acting on time and delaying the lockdown, so he's now doing the opposite. He's being slower with everything. I don't think that the country can afford to lockdown as a whole or continue this one. They locked down too late and they didn't take it seriously in the first place. There's still a ridiculous thing of people being allowed to come in on planes and go on holiday and stuff like that and, as an island, the simplest way for us to eradicate this is to stop everything and that's what should have happened."
Steve thinks that having just had one big lockdown would have been better and that a vaccine passport for hospitality will be inevitable. “The mistake that's going to happen once again is that they're not going to have a strict rule and that they're going to leave it down to each business - negating blame like they did with the substantial meal rules. It's all about negating blame and deflecting. My worry about a prolonged lockdown, or another happening later, is that they're turning people into a nation of snitches. Over the last year, the pandemic has done its damnedest to destroy social interaction. It's completely destroyed simply going to a supermarket and the way people behave towards you on a bus, the tube or walking down the street. That’s really frightening for me and I think the danger is losing the community around pubs which are probably the last place that's truly democratic in the UK - you can come in and have a drink and sit beside a judge, or a builder or whoever and there's no judgment."
Celebrating the end of lockdown with a massive party in the pub on Saturday 24th July, the first weekend after Freedom Day, Steve thinks it might be like the roaring twenties again. “As well as our regulars, lots of people have moved into the area during lockdown so we've got a whole new customer base and I’m just happy to welcome everybody back!"
Book your table now and check out what's going on at the pub via the Sir Richard Steele website.
97 Haverstock Hill, London NW3 4RL, UK
020 7483 1261
