Approaching The Compton Arms in Islington — a place that I last visited for a review four years, a royal succession and approximately 17 Tory leadership campaigns ago — it looked, initially, like not much had changed. Here was the old, off-white building and the clamour of late spring’s first pavement drinkers; here were the flat-screen TVs, cosy, low-beamed anterooms and youthful, nose-ringed bar staff; and here, inevitably, was a man in the corner loudly explaining to a half-interested date that George Orwell used to be a regular here.
In this case, however, outward stasis belies a period of quiet revolution. Having survived a 2022 attempt by Nimbyish neighbours to close it down, The Compton now has a 29-year-old, lavishly tattooed ex-ballerina called Esther Redfern-Ghaleb as its de facto landlady.
