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Clissold Arms

Haringey, N2 9HR
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About Clissold Arms

The Clissold Arms is a much loved local venue located off the busy high roads of Muswell Hill and East Finchley in north London and has a long 175 year history and a famed musical heritage. It is known as the ‘Home of the Kinks’, as it is the site of the performing debut of Ray and Dave Davies in 1957, founding members of the English Rock Band the Kinks, who lived opposite the Clissold.

On walking in, you will feel the warmth straight away from our front of house staff Christina, Andreas and Tracy, who are always there to give a welcome with a smile and to recommend the dish of the day or something from our extensive Greek menu. There are daily activities always going on at the Clissold from charity quizzes, backgammon and chess events, music nights and even a book reading club and a knitting club!

As well as the main bar/dining area and the tranquil patio garden, we have 3 private functions rooms being the Terrace, The Shed and the Kinks Room which is adorned with memorabilia of their band and their music that rocked the world in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This keeps their world wide achievements alive! We aim to provide a very professional service but in the friendliest way to make patrons feel at home.

We host multiple events each week, (weddings, bar mitzvahs, birthdays, wakes etc) and we handle these with a dedication to exceed customer expectations and make every event special. We are proud to say that we know plenty of our customers as they’ve become regulars, always coming back to seek a good meal and a friendly smile.

At the Clissold Arms, we strive to create an inclusive and welcoming venue for all without exceptions.

Whether that means engaging with our local community by hosting plenty of charity quizzes and fundraisers and providing space for support groups, schools, clubs and societies (20+) or the local police and councillors to meet up, or providing cultural contribution to the community through our refurbished ‘Kinks Room’ that serves as a small museum drawing fans to see where this legendary rock band first performed. We also feel it’s important to promote local young talent by hosting their musical events and also giving them an opportunity to start their work life with summer apprenticeships with us.

About the Local Community

For us, going above and beyond means treating our regulars like family, especially the elderly whose relatives live far away. The family of one of our regulars, a senior citizen, asked for our help when they couldn’t contact them. We quickly mobilised our network, reaching out to our local community groups and neighbours and thanks to these connections we were able to notify the family that their loved one was taken to hospital by an ambulance. We were able to give the family the urgent answers and peace of mind they desperately needed. Moments like this remind us that a pub is much more than a place to have a drink, it’s a vital community lifeline. Additionally, one of our staff delivers our unused cooked food on an informal basis to a nearby housing shelter for ex-army servicemen. This gesture is warmly received by the ex-service personnel, and just another reminder of how supportive pubs can be to their community.

For our charity events and community events, we offer use of our venue with no hire fee.

Events hosted this year include:
– The Chris Harmanda Foundation helping less fortunate people
– Marie Curie Quiz Fundraiser
– East Finchley Festival Meetings
– The Zinc House Kids of Sierra Leone fundraiser
– Age UK Barnet Community Support Board Meetings & Events
– Support Group Meetings for Adopted People
– Local School’s end of term prom nights
– NHS team away days for Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS trusts
– Police Ward Panel Meetings
– Lucy Summerfield fundraising event supporting women and girls experiencing domestic violence and sexual abuse
– Kids Workshops
– Bump & Baby parenting sessions
– Walking Group gatherings
– Kinks fan free daily tours of our venue
– Folk dancing
– Networking events
– Chess, Backgammon
– All Dogs Matter Charity Event
– Highgate Cemetery Volunteers meetings
– Book Club
– Kids Choir Rehearsals every Sunday
– Comedy Club
– Poetry club
– Open Mic
– Blind Date Nights
– Wine Tasting
– Live Music Events

About Local Businesses

The Clissold Arms is listed as an Asset of Community Value by the local authority, in recognition of its important role within the community. We’ve experienced at first-hand how supporting our local businesses has been extremely beneficial for our charity events and community events, mentioned previously.

As well as buying local and hiring local people, we support local businesses by acting as a hub, giving space to local stuff to happen. We provide support in the form of donations, provide free use of our private rooms for important events such as wine tasting, arts and crafts displays etc. In our pub entrance we let local businesses put up their fliers and notices, the local newspapers and magazines are also available and we do a large amount of fundraising for local causes. We are also open from 10am to midnight, 7 days a week which helps footfall in the area.

We build our relationships with local suppliers on a foundation of mutual help and shared success, sharing resources and tips because we know we are stronger together. We recommend our suppliers to our customers (decorations, music, games, entertainment) and vice versa.

Our philosophy is to supply only what’s fresh, which has led to a unique community partnership. For instance, we previously hosted a local fish vendor in our parking space once a week to reach new customers, in exchange of fresh fish for our customers.

If we were to close permanently, the effect would be the same as we experience during the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s not just a loss for the regulars, but to the whole community and staff. Our venue is also a reliable economic anchor that independent traders rely on to survive.

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About Staff at Clissold Arms

We offer our staff a rewarding career, flexible working hours within a happy and professional work environment. We continuously aim to raise standards, to improve our staff and customer experience. We provide not just employment, but opportunity offering young people training and leadership roles because we value people and passion.

We encourage our staff to take current training, be it in Essential Food Hygiene Level 2, Health and Safety training for employees, fire safety which includes emergency plans or regular fire drills and first aid training. Customer safety awareness schemes such as “Ask for Angela” and proof of age schemes such as “Challenge 25” to prevent underage alcoholic drinking. We clearly enforce policies and we feel it important to create a safe and welcoming environment.

We encourage our staff to attend industry events such to broaden their vision and to attend drinks courses run by our tied pub company Stonegate, and also our wine supplier Majestic Wines. We recruit service of a food and hygiene consultant who comes in at regular intervals to train our staff in the latest processes and procedures required to be maintain the highest standards in this field. We also have a consultant health and safety as well as a fire risk assessor who visits regularly to advice and train our staff in these areas.

The majority of our current team of 15 have been with us for several years. We aim to retain our staff by offering them a professionally run environment where each individual member is valued, respected and where they have the opportunity to explore their talents in a variety of different roles at the pub so that they can be multi-faceted. e.g work the kitchen pass, serve in the bar, serve the buffet, serve customer tables, be in charge of customer events etc.

About Charity Work at Clissold Arms

The Clissold Arms has a longstanding history within the community for supporting our local schools and charitable organisations.

We provide our own donations/vouchers to charities, plus providing free room hire for quiz, meetings or other events. We help charities with their advertising using our newsletter and social media, as well as posting posters at the pub and we also volunteer to create these posters if required. We have a Donation box (for the Sunnydays Charity) for customers to donate money towards. Additionally, another initiative we support is the charity Centre Point “Sponsoring a Room”, whose aim is to end youth homelessness.

Our biggest contribution however is to Chris Harmanda Foundation Charity, where in the last 3 years we have helped them raise near to £70k by being their main sponsor and event organiser at our venue.

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