If you were a music-loving Londoner who came of age in the 2000s, it was a rite of passage to make a pilgrimage to Camden. In your formative years to buy incense and Dr Martens from the market and later it’s likely it was your main stomping ground for gigs at Barfly, The Good Mixer and Electric Ballroom, as well as club nights at Koko. But the ultimate symbol of the inner London borough’s status as the centre of British music at the time? The Hawley Arms.
The former biker pub turned indie haunt was frequented by everyone from Pete Doherty and Kate Moss to Razorlight. More random sightings at the bar include David Gest (who was a confidant of Amy’s according to NME headlines of the time) and Kirsten Dunst (she briefly dated Johnny Borrell in 2007). Though it was best known for its patron saint, Amy Winehouse. She is so synonymous with the venue that ahead of the 10th anniversary of her death in 2021 a mural appeared in the alley behind the pub in homage. So it feels absurd that The Hawley Arms is reportedly the absent character in Back to Black, starring Marisa Abela as Amy and Jack O’Connell as Blake Fielder-Cyvil.
