The Devonshire Arms is a public house in London, UK, said to be "London's most famous alternative venue "[1] It serves a clientele drawn from a variety of alternative subcultures including Industrial, Metal, Punk and Cyber, although its décor is gothic and this is the subculture with which it is widely identified.
Located in Camden Town, a area of North London famous for alternative shops and markets, the pub attracts a mix of London regulars plus visitors from elsewhere in the UK and overseas. The Devonshire Arms is widely known in alternative circles outside the UK because of the London scene's notably cosmopolitan composition.
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Amongst locals & regulars (and also within certain alternative subcultures), The Devonshire Arms is colloquially referred to as "The Dev".[1] Even though the pub changed hands in early 2008[1] and is listed as "The Hobgoblin Camden" in most directories, it retains this nickname amongst most of its clientele.
The sign bearing the name "Devonshire Arms" & attendant coat of arms still hangs from one of the upper storeys.
The Devonshire Arms is the longest surviving Goth pub in London and has remained a focal point for the city's alternative scene for many years. During the 1980s, Spider Stacy and Shane MacGowan of The Pogues frequented the pub.[2]
It is close to several live music and club venues - notably Slimelight in the nearby area of Islington. Slimelight claims to be the longest-running goth nightclub in the world and its unusually permissive opening hours (it runs until 7:30am) make the Devonshire Arms a popular choice for pre-club drinks.
The pub is situated at 33 Kentish Town Road on the corner of Hawley Crescent – approximately 3 minutes' walk from Camden Town London Underground station on the Northern Line. It is adjacent to the headquarters of MTV Europe.
It occupies a three-storey mock Tudor building with black beams and white plaster rendering. The public bar is on the ground floor.
One of the bar's defining characteristics used to be its goth and alternative dress code – which was routinely enforced. Customers who did not specifically conform to this style were generally expected to observe an all-black (or near to) minimum.
As a point of principle, it was regularly cited (often by goths themselves) as being incongruous with the scene's professed axiom of nonconformity. This is a specific instance of a widely observed paradox regarding the alternative scene as a whole - and, in particular, its members' tendency to exhibit conformist tendencies.
This argument, however, does not acknowledge the dress code's stated and overriding purpose - which, as noted, was the preservation of the pub's hassle-free ethos - rather than the imposition of an arbitrary style.
Music played in the pub includes Darkwave, Gothic rock, Trad Goth and EBM. Futurepop, Industrial, Heavy metal, Thrash metal, Glam Metal Punk and Synthpop are also featured.
There are DJs most evenings - sometimes accompanied by film or music videos. There are also regular themed nights catering for styles such as J-Rock (Japanese Rock), Ambient Music and Deathrock - plus nights dedicated to particular groups or artists (e.g. David Bowie)
Occasionally there are one-off, non-music events catering for the more esoteric tastes within the scene - for example, a night celebrating the horror fiction of H. P. Lovecraft and an evening dedicated to dragon poetry.
Shots of the interior of The Devonshire Arms, including some of its artwork, featured in "Goths",[3] an episode from a 2003 BBC anthology series, Spine Chillers.
The Devonshire Arms was part of the estate of Pubs N Bars PLC (AIM: PNB),[4] until that company went into administration in 2009.[5]