The Engineer is one of Primrose Hill’s most established pubs.
Jade Semple, the wife of the missing Niall Semple who is one of the agency’s possible suspects for the body in the silver vault, mentions the Engineer to Strike. Strike has travelled to Crieff to interview Jade about her husband and she elects to speak with him whilst walking her dog through MacRosty Park. Jade tells Strike she heard Niall on the phone ‘abou’ a week before ‘e buggered off.’ ‘E was saying meet me at the Engineer’. Jade goes on to say, ‘I know what the fuckin’ Engineer is, I wen’ an’ looked it up. ‘S a pub in Camden. Coincidence. ‘Righ’ by where ‘e was takin’ out money from, ‘is secret bank account.’ (Chapter 59)
Jade Semple tells Strike that one day Niall ‘went on a run an’ went all the way to fuckin’ Dunkeld. On his way back from Crieff Strike broke his journey in the small Scottish town of Moffat. He had a coffee and a burger in a café and googled Dunkeld and saw that the bridge there had been built by Freemason Thomas Telford and learned that a bridge over the River Dee had been built by the equally masonic Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Remembering that Semple had wanted to meet an unknown woman in a pub called The Engineer he wondered vaguely whether masonry appealed particularly to engineers or vice versa. (Chapter 61)
In Chapter 72, Pat tells Strike ‘that Scottish Gateshead just called again’ ‘Bloody rude’. Strike asks, ‘what was she saying this time?’ Pat replies, ‘something about an engineer and people are out to get her. Swearing her head off!’ Strike makes a note and pins it to the corkboard beneath the picture of Niall Semple. “Scottish woman. Engineer. People out to get her.” (Chapter 72)
Rena Liddel, ‘the Scottish Gateshead’, calls Strike early one morning saying she has been discharged from hospital and back on medication. Strike lets Robin know he will meet Rena at the Engineer in Camden, where Rena and Semple had a drink before he disappeared. (Chapter 113)
Strike parks his BMW in Gloucester Road where The Engineer is located. The pub is only a couple of hundred yards away from a bridge over the Regents Canal.
The sign over the door shows the top-hatted Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Upon entering Strike finds a stylish gastropub. The bar is of highly polished wood, the walls scarlet and the clientele well-groomed.
Rena is nowhere in sight. At the bar Strike asks if anyone has left a message for him. The barmaid asks, ‘has she got a tattoo on her face?’ When Strike replies she has, the barmaid tells the barman, ‘That filthy one who started shouting.’ ‘She shouted something about a bridge and left’.
Strike goes back out to the street and spots steps leading down from the street to Regent’s Canal.
He descends them and emerges on a stretch of footpath. He is standing between two bridges, one made of brick for cars and pedestrians, the other of iron, for train tracks.
A single white swan glides slowly towards him. He then spots a dark huddled mass beneath the bridge that he thinks could be human. Strike approaches the figure slowly. It is small, not male and he says ‘Rena’ quietly. Rena jumps up, she has a gun and tries to attack Strike who fends her off trying not to be rough and says, ‘It’s me – Cormoran Strike – you wanted to meet me – fucks sake’. The sense of his words seems to penetrate her and she stops fighting. Strike notices the gun is a replica and he takes it off her.
Rena says, ‘Ah think it was here he meant’ gesturing at the bridge, ‘Who, Niall?’ said Strike. ‘Aye. He said he’d left stuff for me. More stuff. Mebbe hid behind the bricks?’ Strike says ‘Yeah, you told me he gave you something when you met’. ‘What was it?’ Rena denies saying anything, thinking Strike is ‘after’ what she had and Strike says, ‘Must’ve imagined that, then’. (Chapter 115)
Strike eventually persuades Rena to walk ‘a bit’ along the towpath. She tells him she met Niall in The Engineer. They return to the steps and climbed up to the street together then enter The Engineer and take a seat by the window in the red-walled room.
Rena starts to talk about her past and they both order a pint of beer. Rena then gropes under the layers of dirty clothing and frees a silver necklace. ‘Niall gave that to you, did he?’ said Strike. ‘Aye. He said it wuz magic’ said Rena, ‘Fur protection’. ‘He was gonna give you more silver jewellery?’ ‘Aye yeah, Ah think so. He’s hid it, at the bridge’. ‘At the bridge where I met you?’ asks Strike. Rena confirms and agrees when Strike asks if Niall had a briefcase with him, she says it was heavy and she thinks he had more silver in there. (Chapter 115)
Strike takes Rena to a Travelodge, he pays for her to stay there a couple of nights. (Chapter 116)
The Engineer dates back to the 1800’s and gets its name from one of Britons most famous civil engineers, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Brunel was instrumental in the design and construction of the Great Western Railway and the SS Great Britain, he also assisted in the formation of the first tunnel to run beneath the River Thames. Brunel’s offices are said to have been upstairs in The Engineer and his silhouette is still featured in the pub swing sign.
The Engineer has been a favourite haunt of North London’s politicians, actors and comedians. The pub offers a stunning Brunel Dining Room, a private dining space and a walled beer garden.
Find the Engineer on the map below: