What's your Wetherspoons number?

[fhills]

I wouldn't generally choose to go one these days, mainly because I object to giving Tim Martin my money, but on the whole they're fine, especially when compared to Harvester's or other chain pubs. There's a decent range of beer, passably kept, it's cheap, and the buildings are often interesting. I wouldn't go to a city-centre one on a Friday or Saturday night, but then I'd avoid other chain pubs as well. As for the food, I don't understand the snobbery - it's not exactly great, but it's no worse than anywhere else using the same boil-in-the-bag outside-catering fare, and what do you expect for five or six quid?

Thanks for the positive tone of your post  but got to stress that they are on totally different planet to harvester. Does anyone go in them for beer? The range, and ever changing range, of beer in spoons is excellent. And very well kept. They often refuse to serve a pint they don't have confidence in. And they let you taste the beer which is mightily civilised and welcome since i very often don't know the beers. Agree with you about the food. No one would claim it is a great gastronomic experience but it is damn handy in a strange town or when you are too lazy to cook and fancy a bite with your fine pint. As for the snobbery about the food, agree with you but in this  me me social media self image world some folk clearly feel the need to broadcast thier position in the world and fine fine taste. And very probably some just don't like appreciate good beer and have other interests.

And if anyone can remind me how to embed an image  in a post i'll buy them a spoons pint.

Ps, still waiting for OPs top ten from that mightily impressive resesrch.

[SoreTween]

IME beer in spoons is as variable as anywhere else.  E.g. I remember being terribly excited to hear that the new spoons opening in Horley would be smoke free.  After six months barely able to contain my excitement The Jack Fairman opened, after 3 visits I gave up and put up with the smoke elsewhere for that last year or so before it was banned.  In the years from then to leaving Horley I went to the Jack maybe 3 more times and the beer was rank every time.  Friends who still live in Horley say it is just as bad to this day.  That is the stand out worst by a mile.
At the other end of the scale the cellar keeper at the Herbert Wells in Woking is a god of his craft.
35% of the visits to The Rodboro Buildings in Guildford will see a pint sent back but there's always enough alternatives.
Mostly though in a spoons I find a good selection^{1 2} and it's perfectly decent beer.

I've turned around and walked out of pubs many times in my life upon finding only electrically delivered generic beer.  I've never walked out of a spoons.  If you want a guaranteed shit selection of shit beer go to an O'Neill's

¹ I have to mention at the point the Sovereigns also in Woking.  8 hand pull pumps and always well kept yet it's always such a disappointing place to visit.  There will be Doom, Harveys, and Pride on plus four others indistinguishable from those three.
² I also have to mention the 3 Horseshoes at Irons Bottom.  8 hand pulls again of which 4 never changed, Tanglefoot, Doom, Harveys and I can't recall the 4th.  Of the other pumps minimum 3 would be on serving my absolute favourite beer - one I've not seen before.  Lots of lovely lights in the summer and darks in the winter.  Terrific pub that one.

W= around 20 at a guess.

[fhills]

 Too lazy to google sore.

Those pubs you mentioned spoons?

Spoons pubs generally decent to  great for choice, and often, despite the fact that some folk see them as A CHAIN often have local beers. Was in (ok outside) a norwich one on a cycling trip recently and they had a nice beer from a norfolk brewer which i had only had once before at what was virtually the brewery tap.

Doom vastly overated over marketed (hint, it has about as many cornwall links as i have) beer which they try to charge more for. Always amuses saddens me that folks will go in a spoons and pay more for global lager fizz when they could drown in british beer wonder for less dosh. Maybe they are the relatives of similarly doltish folks who frequent high class hotel bars - in my experience often palaces of bad beer.

[SoreTween]

Yeah sorry, not clear.

Jack Fairman, Herbert Wells & Rodoboro Buildings = Spoons
3 Horseshoes & Soverieigns not.

[clarion]

I've been to many more 'Spoons than I would have liked to.  Viz, none.  It really is a last resort.

[citoyen]

Spoons pubs generally decent to  great for choice, and often, despite the fact that some folk see them as A CHAIN often have local beers.

That's no guarantee the beer will be kept or served in good condition. As noted earlier, the beer quality in the Spoons in Whitstable seems quite reliable, but the two Spoons in Canterbury are wildly variable in my experience - admittedly I've not been in either for some time, but that's largely because I've had very disappointing experiences in both in the past and Canterbury has plenty of alternatives serving reliably good quality beer in a more pleasant environment so there's no impetus to return.

[Cunobelin]

One of Wetherspoon's "customs" is to localise the pub with a connection to a local character or building

They then have "educational" displays linking that with other local history

In Fareham we have the "Lord Arthur Lee"

Named after a local who had a glowing military and political career Amongst his other acts gave his country house "Chequers" for the use of the Prime Minister for meetings in a more informal environment


The one thing they don't mention is that he was a supporter of the temperance movement

[Cunobelin]

... and do you get points for driving in?

A drinker thrown out of a pub took revenge by smashing his car through the front doors and driving around inside the bar, causing £300,000 worth of damage.

Customers dived for cover as Stephen Lewry reversed his Vauxhall Cavalier into the pub and crashed into the bar.

Today Lewry, 36, admitted in court that he drove into the Lord Arthur Lee pub in Fareham, Hampshire, destroying tables, chairs and glasses.

Lewry had been barred from the JD Wetherspoon pub the night before for begging for drinks from other customers. Before he crashed his car into the pub he had broken 12 of the building's windows with a large weightlifter's dumbbell.

Witness Chris Diamond, 42, was in the bar at the time. He said: "It was terrifying. The car flew across the entrance and smashed into the bar.

"He was driving around the pub for what seemed like five minutes, pulling three-point turns and taking out pillars.

"I have never seen anything like it. If the pub had been busier he would have killed someone."

It happened half an hour after opening, and only four customers were in the pub. None of them was injured.

Lewry, of Fareham, attempted to escape from the pub in West Street but members of the public restrained him until the police arrived.

Appearing at Portsmouth Crown Court, he pleaded guilty to four charges relating to the incident in May including two of damaging property being reckless as to whether life was endangered, and one of dangerous driving. The case was adjourned for reports and Lewry was also placed under an interim driving disqualification.

His driving could see him jailed when he reappears at Portsmouth Crown Court for sentencing in October.

After today's hearing, Inspector Simon Wrigglesworth of Fareham Police said: "It was a completely bizarre incident and a very serious and frightening one.

"It caused complete mayhem.

"Had there been more people in the pub there was a distinct possibility that someone could have been killed."

Alan Shorthouse, 23, duty manager at the Lord Arthur Lee, arrived at the scene 15 minutes after Lewry rammed his car into the building.

He recalled: "When I got to the pub there was a car in the middle of the room and wood was everywhere. You couldn't tell whether it was chairs or tables. It was all smashed up. It was horrendous."

Mr Shorthouse said one of the members of duty staff was so traumatised she asked for a transfer.

[Mr Larrington]

(Wonders whether Robyn Hitchcock had this in mind when he wrote "The Wreck Of The Arthur Lee")

["No.  No, he did not." - Ed.]

[fhills]

I've been to many more 'Spoons than I would have liked to.  Viz, none.  It really is a last resort.

So you have never been to one of these resorts?

Your considered opinion is based on what then?

[fhills]

One of Wetherspoon's "customs" is to localise the pub with a connection to a local character or building

They then have "educational" displays linking that with other local history

Yes they can be quite interesting/fill an odd spare moment in a strange town. The Denmark Hill one has an info panel on Havelock Ellis and Ruskin amongst others though they skip over the influence of the former's nurse on his sexual pysche.

By the by, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor at the height of their global fame went for a sunday lunchtime drink at that pub. Pre spoons of course butt the beer is probably better now.

[bobb]

By the by, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor at the height of their global fame went for a sunday lunchtime drink at that pub. Pre spoons of course butt the beer is probably better now.

I bet if it had been a spoons back then, Richard would have fingered Liz in the bogs before returning to his pint - downing it, then vomiting on the carpet.

[clarion]

I've been to many more 'Spoons than I would have liked to.  Viz, none.  It really is a last resort.

So you have never been to one of these resorts?

Your considered opinion is based on what then?

Zero is the number I wish I had been to.  Umpteen is the number visited.

[clarion]

One of Wetherspoon's "customs" is to localise the pub with a connection to a local character or building

They then have "educational" displays linking that with other local history

In Fareham we have the "Lord Arthur Lee"

Named after a local who had a glowing military and political career Amongst his other acts gave his country house "Chequers" for the use of the Prime Minister for meetings in a more informal environment


The one thing they don't mention is that he was a supporter of the temperance movement

In Streatham, they have named one after a local artist, Holland Tringham.

Mr Tringham suffered some calamitous life events, and became an alcoholic before ending up in an asylum.

[citoyen]

I just looked up Thomas Ingoldsby, after whom one of the two Spoons in Canterbury is named. Apparently he's the fictional author of a collection of myths and ghost stories.

I don't know what his connection is with the building that now bears his name. It used to be a carpet showroom before Spoons bought it and it still has all the atmosphere of a carpet showroom.

[clarion]

The author was a cleric born in Kent.  Probably Canterbury, but I don't recall.

[citoyen]

The author was a cleric born in Kent.  Probably Canterbury, but I don't recall.

He's linked to Tappington Manor, apparently, which is in Denton, just a few miles down the road from Canterbury.

[SoreTween]

Blimey The Resolution in Middlesbrough is grim, properly squelching carpet. Mind the whole town is a shit hole so it fits in perfectly.  Beer is great though and £1.75 a pint. Only went there as I needed a small feed, spoons is good when you don't want a full meal.
The Infant Hercules (micro pub) is lovely in every respect.

[fhills]

I've been to many more 'Spoons than I would have liked to.  Viz, none.  It really is a last resort.

So you have never been to one of these resorts?

Your considered opinion is based on what then?

Zero is the number I wish I had been to.  Umpteen is the number visited.

Well in view of your (clarified) extensive experience, i am tempted to ask for individual branch details. But since your experience seems to have been so universally miserable I musk ask why.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The author was a cleric born in Kent.  Probably Canterbury, but I don't recall.

He's linked to Tappington Manor, apparently, which is in Denton, just a few miles down the road from Canterbury.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Barham

[citoyen]

The author was a cleric born in Kent.  Probably Canterbury, but I don't recall.

He's linked to Tappington Manor, apparently, which is in Denton, just a few miles down the road from Canterbury.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Barham

Not to be confused with Richard Denton who lived in Barham.

#localhumour

[clarion]

I've been to many more 'Spoons than I would have liked to.  Viz, none.  It really is a last resort.

So you have never been to one of these resorts?

Your considered opinion is based on what then?

Zero is the number I wish I had been to.  Umpteen is the number visited.

Well in view of your (clarified) extensive experience, i am tempted to ask for individual branch details. But since your experience seems to have been so universally miserable I musk ask why.

Shite food, bigoted owner, poor employment practices, shite food, smell of stale beer, sticky carpets, shite food, entrance full of fag fumes, overall ambience of despair...

Tbf, and in the context of the discussion upthread, I am teetotal, and therefore have no experience nor opinion on the beers available.

[menthel]

I have experience of two.

Moon on the Hill in Sutton was one of my formative drinking haunts. Theakston's XB was consumed and fun was had, at least until the smoking section (we all sat in the non smoking bit) randomly split into two parties and started throwing furniture at each other. Not that this is abnormal for pubs in Sutton- its only saving grace being that it is not Croydon.

JJ Loons in Tooting was one of the many pubs we visited whilst at Uni. Mainly for the cheap booze and 2 for £5 minted lamb burgers- romantic dinner as always. It was mainly frequented by the residents of Springfield Hospital, the local mental health establishment and therefore could be quite colourful. They often went there to meet the local drug dealer to buy crack and cannabis. They would smoke the crack in the car park before taking the cannabis back to enjoy on the wards. Our mental healthcare at its best.

I can't say I have been in one since.

[citoyen]

Tbf, and in the context of the discussion upthread, I am teetotal, and therefore have no experience nor opinion on the beers available.

But what do you think of the food? No sitting on the fence now...

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

More of a vintage inn drinker myself.  I don't recall entering a wetherspoon. Ever.