IF THESE WORDS sound familiar, it’s not necessarily that you’re tipsy, it could simply be that you read more or less the same words in 2015. Every year Loving Dalston publishes a guide to Christmas Day pub openings in and around Hackney and repetition in the piece is hard to avoid.

Still, it has so far been exclusive, although shamefully not an app (one day, eh?).

A few pubs have dropped out since last year 2015 because custom has not justified the costs. Other boozers have taken their place as more and more pubs decide that food makes the figures add up. Do not, however, expect to turn up on the day and get a seat for a three-course meal. Dinner sessions sometimes book up weeks ahead.

Drinking or also eating, choose a pub close to home. Ours may be World City No 1 but it runs no public transport on the greatest single holiday of the English year.

159 Newington Green Road, London N1 4QU (020 7226 3531), dog-friendly, noon-8pm. Today no drinks-only: you’re expected to order a meal (£45 a head).

Dove

24/28 Broadway Market E8 4Q(020 8525 9010), dog-friendly, noon-3pm.

Marksman, 254 Hackney Road E2 7SJ (0207 739 7393), 11am-3pm. Dog-friendly gastropub. But cook’s having today off.

Molly Blooms (ex Brewery Tap)

is not opening on the big day.

Old Eagle Pub

251 Royal College Street. Camden NW1 9LU (020 7482 6021), dog-friendly, noon-4pm. Bit of a schlepp for Hackneyites. A traditional bar inside a  fine Georgian building awaits the fit.

Palm Tree

127 Grove Road E3 5BH (8980 2918), noon-4pm, discourages dogs. Ideally approached on foot (beware cyclists) or bicycle (consider walkers) via Regent’s Canal towpath.

Perseverance

112 Pritchards Road, Hackney E2 9AP, noon-3pm (020 76133498), discourages dogs. Within metres of hipster home Broadway Market, yet in its own world, the Percy has an outdoors heated rear garden.

Royal Sovereign

64 Northwold Road, Clapton E5 8RL (020 8806 2449), noon-2pm, dog-friendly.

Talbot

109 Mortimer Road, De Beauvoir N1 4JY (0207 241 2995), dog-friendly, noon-5pm. Food reservations only (fully booked this year); meals £55 a head.

JD Wetherspoon

282 Mare Street, Hackney E8 1HE (020 8525 9010), 11am-3pm. Good range of craft beers in spacious interior, usually male-dominated. A local loves the carpets so much he wrote a book about them. Foyer smoking area, heated roof terrace.

David Altheer 241216

* Backstory: Christmas Day pubs 2015. Publicans, the list has grown since it was first published. If you want your pub added to the list, email editor[at]lovingdalston.co.uk, substituting @ for [at] and sending the necessary details and no more, not even a picture.

* All pictures on this page © DavidAltheer[at]gmail.com. All for sale for reproduction. 

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained. 

David Altheer 231216

* Backstory: Christmas Day pubs 2015

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained.