The former Edward Lear pub in Holloway Road will reopen on Thursday as The Owl and Hitchhiker having undergone a major facelift.

The boozer, formerly The Quays and the Half Moon, has been closed for a month while the work has been carried out. Owners Laine’s - which also runs the Three Compasses in Hornsey and the Prince Albert in Camden – says the new-look pub is “like nothing Holloway Road has seen before”.

The name is a nod to two of the area’s “most famous sons” – Lear, who wrote nonsense poem The Owl and the Pussycat, and Douglas Adams, who penned The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Laine’s said: “Both writers’ key works are celebrated with huge wooden sculptures: an owl descending on one wall, the Hitchhiker’s Guide’s Don’t Panic logo hanging reassuringly on the mezzanine balcony.”

The bar will stock Laine’s craft brews. There will also be a cocktail bar upstairs.