The Drapers Arms

The Drapers Arms is routinely named among London’s best gastropubs, and the Sunday roast — served as a genuine sharing feast, not individual plates — is the clearest reason why. Islington has no shortage of good pubs doing a competent roast, but most of them plate it the standard way, one portion per person, gravy boat passed politely down the table.

The Drapers Arms does something closer to how a roast actually gets eaten at home: a whole joint arrives at the table and the table works out how to divide it, which changes the entire character of a Sunday lunch here.

The Room

A handsome 1830s Islington pub, comfortable rather than showy — high ceilings, tall windows, and a garden out back that becomes the obvious choice of seating the moment the weather allows it. The dining room proper sits upstairs from the bar, giving the pub a genuine split between a drop-in local downstairs and a more considered dining experience above it, without either side feeling like an afterthought bolted onto the other.

It’s smart enough for an occasion without ever feeling like it’s trying to be anything other than a very good pub, and that balance is precisely why it’s held its reputation across a stretch of Islington that has seen plenty of flashier competitors open and close in the same period.

Barnsbury Street itself is quiet and almost entirely residential, which makes a full dining room here on a Sunday feel like a genuinely local occasion rather than a destination crowd bussed in from elsewhere.

What to Order

Baked Camembert is the sensible way to start, a simple, communal dish that sets the tone for a meal built around sharing rather than individually plated courses. The braised rabbit leg is worth ordering on a normal weeknight, when the kitchen’s more considered French-inflected cooking gets the attention that a Sunday roast crowd tends to reserve entirely for the roast.

And the Sunday sharing roasts are the reason this pub has the reputation it does — a slow-cooked lamb shoulder, a roast forerib of beef, or a whole roast chicken, each built to serve two or three people from a single dish set down in the middle of the table, with the sides arriving the same way.

It changes the whole rhythm of the meal: less “my plate, your plate,” more genuinely working out portions together.

The Drinks List

A well-chosen wine list to match the French-inflected British menu, with enough structure in the reds to stand up to a shared lamb shoulder or forerib without being an afterthought next to the food.

It’s not an extensive list, but everything on it has clearly been chosen with the actual menu in mind rather than assembled generically, and the by-the-glass options make it easy to match a lighter red to rabbit and a fuller one to beef without committing a whole table to one bottle.

What You Will Pay

Around £45–60 per person à la carte; a fuller meal with wine can run to £80–90, which for a proper sharing Sunday roast — effectively a whole joint split across a table, not a single plated portion — represents genuinely fair value once you account for what’s actually arriving at the table.

Splitting a shoulder or forerib across three or four people also tends to work out cheaper per head than ordering individual roasts elsewhere in the neighbourhood, on top of being a considerably better meal.

The Verdict

Book Sunday lunch specifically — the sharing roasts are the dish this pub is actually known for, and trying it any other day, while still a good meal, misses the thing that built the reputation. Come with an appetite and a group willing to carve and share rather than expecting individual plates.

What’s Being Said

A Sunday roast built for the whole table, not individual plates, is rarer than it should be — most pubs default to single portions because it’s simpler to cost and serve, and the fact that The Drapers Arms hasn’t taken that easier route is exactly what’s kept people coming back specifically for Sundays here rather than treating it as one option among many.

It’s also why this review lands at a full 5 stars rather than a strong-but-qualified 4 — the rating is really an assessment of the Sunday roast specifically, more than the pub’s respectable but less exceptional weekday cooking.