THE CHRISTMAS Day walk with family and friends, if you’re up to it this Sunday, is a pleasant way to kid yourself that you’re  countering the food and drink excesses of the season.How logical, too, for strollers to drift towards a pub.

But which are open? Loving Dalston has assembled a small, far from comprehensive
list of Hackney-and-around Chrissie Day-opening pubs. Most of them have “The” in the title and most have welcomed cool incomers over the last few years. (I’ll leave you to find out which have chosen to stick with their local crowd).

Loving Dalston used to flutter down to one in Broadway Market, but the particular pub now gives its staff a deserved rest. So here, without particular recommendation, are details of some of the opening locals:

* Marksman, 254 Hackney Rd, Bethnal Green E2 7SJ, noon-6pm. Christmas dinner a speciality (ditto on New Year’s Eve);

* Duke of Wellington (pictured, above and at left), Stonebridge Common, crnr Haggerston and Mayfield roads, Dalston E8 4DA, noon-4pm/5pm (NB, this is not the Balls Pond Rd “Wellie”);

* Brewery Tap, 525 Kingsland Road, Dalston E8 4AR, noon-3pm, then resuming for a late-ending evening session;

* JD Wetherspoon, 282-284 Mare St, E8 1HE, noon-3pm;

* The Jolly Butchers, 204 Stoke Newington High Street, Lon N16 7HU, noon-3pm;

* Marquis of Lansdowne, 48 Stoke Newington Road, Dalston, London, N16 7XJ, noon to 2pm/3pm

* Perseverance, 112 Pritchards Rd (just below Broadway Market), Lon E2 9AP, noon-2.30pm.

David Altheer 191211

* Publicans advise that opening times may be amended on the day, depending on customer numbers.