HOME | LAST 100 POSTS | CONTACT ME

Author: admin

  • Reading – The Back of Beyond (JD Wetherspoon)

    Reading – The Back of Beyond (JD Wetherspoon)

    Just meandering through my old photos and this is The Back of Beyond in Reading, operated by JD Wetherspoon. I visited in February 2022 and was mostly going to pubs in the Good Beer Guide, which explains the limited number of photos that I took in here.

    As for the pub name, the chain explains:

    “This pub stands on the site of a ginger beer factory, later used as a Salvation Army barracks, and takes its name from its location on the edge of town.”

    I remember that this was an odd day as there were gale force winds and numerous venues weren’t opening at all, with all council buildings being closed. This pub is by the River Kennet and the chairs outside were blowing about so much that they were at risk of either losing them or one hitting a pedestrian. A team member calmly came in looking bedraggled from the gale to say the least and suggested “we had better close outside” in a rather understated manner. They certainly wouldn’t have closed inside.

    As an aside, the beer is the Red Kite from Vale Brewery, but this was before the days that I wrote commentary on every beer as well as checking them in. Whilst I was there a member of the public was IDed by a polite team member, but they were aggressive and verbally abusive in response which created a bit of extra tension inside. I remember that the team members here seemed efficient and were evidently doing their best.

    I remember that the pub was clean and seemed in a good state of repair, but I obviously couldn’t visit the outside area without the risk of being hit by a flying chair. There are some pubs that I visit that it’s the clientele that I worry about in that regard, but it was definitely just the weather on this instance.

    Anyway, onto the reviews, with the venue being generally very well rated. The venue is still responding to reviews, which is a little unusual for the chain’s pubs.

    “Me and my university friends are regulars at this spoons, my friends accepted a drink that we assumed is a gift from a family member. There was a mistake from the bartender who provided us with the wrong drink. And recognised the mistake and threatened us to be kicked out of the spoons if we didn’t pay, they went as far as stating that we have committed theft, when me and my friend rightfully asked him for his name he did not provide it, he was an older person with glasses. The customer service is a disgrace.”

    Amazing how many reviews there are along the lines of “I assumed it was a gift from someone” when a customer has merrily gone and drunk something brought to the table in error.

    “Myself & my husband have been regular customers for many many years of The Back of Beyond to eat & drink on Saturdays. We waited patiently at the bar to be served, lady behind bar said who was next & despite my husband saying it was him & putting his hand up she proceeded to serve someone else! We were clearly next as had been stood next to the lady she had just been serving. When we spoke up she said “don’t start anything” At this point we walked out. Needless to say we won’t ever return with that kind of treatment. Staff training in customer service is clearly required here!!”

    To be fair to the bar staff, this sort of stuff is going to happen in a busy pub and this is why I like they have an app to order from…

    “I’ve never felt so unwelcome by some of the staff here. My friends were celebrating my birthday and they called us out over a microphone for singing happy birthday. Im really disappointed in the service here”

    I’m liking the pub even more.

    “Got told off by the Quiz Master for singing happy birthday”

    Yes, I’m on board with the pub now.

    “You should review your age id identification. These days everything is checked online and no one’s carry an id after them.”

    They carry an ID with them if they want to be served.

    “People took over front part of pub by Office louder than your music on phone I played a little bit on my phone to be told it was too loud, but people can be louder. Brought food for 15 year old daughter with option of soft drink, choose alcohol free cider as in soft drinks, Girl brings drinks over and is Rude her words You got ID You got ID, not can I see ID Please. Also Law say she’s having Food she can have a alcohol free, Please educate your staff in UK Rules on this, Oh and to make us A Family feel even more uncomfortable in this Pub she when over to Bar to tell the other staff/ Managers of this, to which they end up staring at us the whole time in there. I no longer recommend this pub, not for families”

    So playing music on a phone and then ordering non alcoholic beers for a 15 year old, it’s not going to end well….. I like JD Wetherspoon’s stance on both and their staff seemed very well trained on them to me.

    Anyway, they usually have around eight real ales and it all seemed well run when I was there. The pricing is somewhere around the middle for the chain and it feels as if it has more of a student crowd in there. The venue had first opened in the 1990s and received an investment of over £850,000 in 2021 to modernise the pub, so I visited soon after all of that work was completed. If I go back, I’ll get some more photos to surprise and delight my two loyal blog readers….

  • Royal Air Force Museum Hendon – Promissory Note from the First Gulf War

    Royal Air Force Museum Hendon – Promissory Note from the First Gulf War

    I’d never much thought about this (like many things) but this is a promissory note that service personnel fighting in the first Gulf War were issued with. If anyone was shot down or otherwise caught in enemy territory, then the Foreign Office would give £15,000 to anyone who returned them to safety. They each have a serial number so that they could be verified.

    Also known as a Safe Conduct Pass, they had been used in the past but as more of a demand that the member of service personnel was properly treated. This ultimately was more of a demand that may or may not be met, but the offer of money was a much more tempting arrangement.

  • Royal Air Force Museum Hendon – Fabric Skin from Richthofen’s Aircraft

    Royal Air Force Museum Hendon – Fabric Skin from Richthofen’s Aircraft

    This fragment of fabric skin from Manfred von Richthofen’s (1892-1918) Fokker Dr.I does look rather modest, but it underpins something of a dramatic story. It was removed from the wreck of the triplane following the crash on 21 April 1918 by Corporal Harry Potter, part of the salvage team although souvenir hunters ended up with various bits of the aircraft.

    The importance is Richthofen himself and the making of the Red Baron myth. He was not merely a successful German fighter ace, but one who understood, whether instinctively or otherwise, the value of visual identity. By having his aircraft painted red, he turned himself into something more than a pilot and more into a symbol of bravery and leadership. As the war progressed, the idea that one aircraft was painted red was seen as a little sub-optimal as it made Richthofen a target, so more planes were painted the same colour.

    I like little survivals like this and because there were souvenir hunters, bits of the aircraft’s fabric skin are in museums around the world, not just here at the Air Force Museum, but at locations such as the Australian War Memorial museum. And, as another minor point that intrigued me, Richthofen was born in what is now Wrocław in a part of the city which is where I stay when visiting. I wonder what he would have thought about his birth place now being part of Poland.

  • Norwich – Cow Tower (open inside)

    Norwich – Cow Tower (open inside)

    I’ve written about Cow Tower before when I was wittering on about the parish of St. Helen’s. However, I’d heard that the gate that has for years prevented people entering the site has been removed, so I thought I’d check on that arrangement.

    And the gate has indeed been opened, whether by vandalism or design, I don’t know.

    This means for the first time, I’ve been able to see inside the whole structure. To repeat what I wrote before:

    “The tower was built between 1398 and 1399, used to defend against foreign invasion and local troublemakers. The latter caused the city some problems during Kett’s Rebellion in 1549, and the structure was damaged during that time.

    The stairs that go up to the higher parts of the tower, which is all inaccessible now since the floors have collapsed. Much was demolished during the late eighteenth century, including many city walls and towers, but this survived. This was perhaps as it came under the care of the Great Hospital, who had no real need to demolish it. The building was patched up in the nineteenth century, but this was done by sloppy civil engineers and they caused large cracks to appear by their use of modern cement.”

    A former fireplace that I haven’t seen before.

    And the interior arrangement. Annoyingly, my camera lens was obviously not impeccably clean as there’s a blur on some of the photos which is sub-optimal.

  • Cologne – Schnütgen Museum (Head of St. George)

    Cologne – Schnütgen Museum (Head of St. George)

    This is appropriate for a British visitor to the museum, it’s likely the head of St. George, the brave knight who fought a dragon that he found somewhere. The stone is actually Roman, but as recycling was quite big in the medieval period, it was repurposed in around 1200 to be used at the Church of St. George in Cologne.

    The head fragment was found at the church in 1928 when a major renovation and restoration was taking place and it was likely part of a larger statue. Unfortunately the church was nearly destroyed during the Second World War, but it has now been rebuilt.

    The head was once painted and I’ve had AI produce what it thinks it might have looked like. Although I don’t suppose that it did actually look like this, it seems an interesting recreation at least.

  • Cologne – Kölnisches Stadtmuseum (Cologne Progressives)

    Cologne – Kölnisches Stadtmuseum (Cologne Progressives)

    This artwork is by Franz Wilhelm Seiwert (1894-1933) who was a member of the Cologne Progressives who hated Hitler. He fled to the German mountains after Hitler took charge, but was brought back to the city by friends due to illness and Seiwert died on 3 July 1933.

    The Cologne Progressives were artists and they were political, focusing on the rights of the workers. This artwork was painted by Seiwert in 1927 and the museum is using it to represent the entire movement which also included artists such as Gerd Arntz (1900-1988) and Heinrich Hoerle (1895-1936).

    The works of this group were defined as “degenerate art” by the Nazis and promptly removed from museums and generally banned. Nearly all of Seiwert’s works in Cologne museums were destroyed, so it’s perhaps fortunate that this particular painting has survived at all.

  • Wetherspoons (Bedfordshire)

    Wetherspoons (Bedfordshire)

    As a slight confession, I like JD Wetherspoon venues and they also drive traffic to this ‘riveting’ blog so there will be more posts about them. If that’s what the public want, then that’s what they get.

    Anyway, starting with Bedfordshire.

    Bedford : Pilgrim’s Progress – 42 Midland Road, Bedford

    Biggleswade : Crown – 23 High Street, Biggleswade

    Dunstable : Gary Cooper – Grove Park Theatre Complex, Court Drive, Dunstable [I haven’t visited this one]

    Leighton Buzzard : Swan Hotel – 50 High Street, Leighton Buzzard

    Luton : White House – 1 Bridge Street, Luton

    They also used to operate the Banker’s Draft in Bedford and the London Hatter in Luton.

  • Bedford – Banker’s Draft (JD Wetherspoon – now closed)

    Bedford – Banker’s Draft (JD Wetherspoon – now closed)

    I never visited the Banker’s Draft in Bedford as it closed in 2016 and was taken over by the Brewhouse & Kitchen chain, although this in turn has now closed. The image above isn’t one of my photos, it’s from Google Streetview.

    Regarding the pub name, the chain noted when it opened that:

    “This pub’s name recalls its former use as a bank. This site used to be a branch of Midland Bank. Established in Birmingham during 1836, the bank opened a branch in High Street, Bedford, in the 1890s. Around the time of World War I, it transferred to 115 High Street, remaining at that address until the mid 1990s.”

    The later renovation from Brewhouse & Kitchen has made it look less like a bank, but it still very much appeared like one back when JD Wetherspoon had it. Amber Taverns have since purchased the building since the Brewhouse & Kitchen set-up closed in 2024 and it’s now open again as the High Street Social Tap.

  • Luton – London Hatter (JD Wetherspoon – now closed)

    Luton – London Hatter (JD Wetherspoon – now closed)

    I never went into the JD Wetherspoon operated London Hatter in Luton, long since closed but the pub name is still visible on the building.

    The building was formerly used by Legends nightclub until 2011 and then JD Wetherspoon spent just under £1 million converting it into a pub. It’s in a location just out of the city centre, so I assume that they were looking for the student trade or similar. It didn’t last long as the closure decision was made in February 2016, which suggests that a fair sum of money was lost here.

    The pub took its name from the Londoner who was involved in building the first hat factory in Luton in the early nineteenth century. There were soon over 500 companies making hats in the town and it was an important part of the local economy in the nineteenth century.

    As for the pub, it seems from photos inside that there was a professional job with the conversion, despite the rather glum external look of the place.

  • Leighton Buzzard – Swan Hotel (JD Wetherspoon)

    Leighton Buzzard – Swan Hotel (JD Wetherspoon)

    Continuing my theme of working out which JD Wetherspoon pubs I’ve been to over the years, this is the Swan Hotel in Leighton Buzzard. I visited here with Liam in November 2018, so this is another one that I’ve had been to recently.

    Explaining the pub’s history, the chain notes:

    “The former Swan Hotel is situated at the Market Place end of High Street. The landmark building, with its statue of a swan atop the façade, was given a grade II listing in May 1975 and dated as ‘early to mid C19’. However, there has been a Swan drinking house on this site for much longer. The earliest reference to it is in the year 1600. The Swan soon developed into the town’s leading coaching inn and ‘posting house’, words which may still be seen on the front of the building.”

    It’s not actually evident when it was rebuilt, but it looks to have been around the 1840s. This was a proper coaching inn though, lots of space and it was noted by an author in the twentieth century that “the yard once had stabling for forty horses; garden, piggery, henhouse, garages and stabling for six horses remain”.

    The pub caught fire in 1967 but was rebuilt with some improvements, such as a new conservatory area. The former ballroom was converted into bedrooms in the 1990s, but by 2009 and the financial crash it was no longer viable for the operator and they put it up for sale. In came JD Wetherspoon who have done a really rather decent job here at keeping the venue alive.

    This is my old staple of chicken wrap and chips, when it cost about £3 or something ridiculous. I do miss this rather simple meal, it’s £9 now including a drink.

    And these were delicious until they took all the sugar out.

    And a beer. Annoyingly, I had started my Untappd account just one week before this visit, but I evidently wasn’t then in the habit of carefully checking in every beer. So, I can only describe this as some porter I obviously liked the look of at the time.

    Obviously I feel the need to look at the reviews and the venue is towards the lower end of the JD Wetherspoon typical scoring. And, yes, I know that I need to get out more to have time to think about this.

    “The first major thing thats a issue with this particular Wetherspoons is that they don’t serve real genuine cocoa powder thats dispensed through the hot drinks machine. they give you 1 instant hot chocolate galaxy sachet each time if you need to refill for another hot chocolate which might i add is extremely far less superior than the rest of the other Wetherspoons across the country that actually pour real genuine cocoa powder into an actual machine that dispenses it with milk simultaneously to give you that thick frothy chocolatey genuine warm and lovely Wetherspoons experience. imo it feels like they want to monitor how much hot chocolate you can have and don’t even provide genuine cocoa when you actually want hot chocolate anyway this is a huge disappointment. I also noticed alot of plates are being left with loads of food left still on the plate sometimes food looking nearly untouched. also the plates are left for a very long time until somebody even realizes they have to be picked up for the tables to be cleared and cleaned. also each time you want a refill you have to literally ask the bartender first for another galaxy sachet which feels completely infantilizing. when i asked for more than one sachet they refused to do so stating they will not do this because i could take them home basically implying customers would steal this trash hot chocolate. which wouldn’t even be a concern if they actually had the machine that dispenses hot chocolate in the first place. if you’re a fan of Wetherspoons being a reliable and consistent pub you can bring your family to be fed and drink i would say to skip this one as this one is doing a disservice to the Wetherspoon name.”

    This is the challenge JD Wetherspoon venues had when the Government stopped them serving unlimited hot chocolate, a rule which has annoyed me but I try not to let it dominate my life. This pub changed its rules at the same time as all of the other ones. It’s a long review though about not having hot chocolate, I admire the depth of the annoyance.

    “Tried to eat in the restaurant to be told , contrary to the licencing law , that the children were not allowed to eat . 8 people including 2 children were now left without anything to eat because weatherspoons rules are different from UK licencing laws. Would not use this or any other weather’s weatherspoons.”

    Or it could be that the venue is following their premises licence.

    “Okay the food is alright but honestly being sanitary is all they need to sort out, we have just been given cutlery that clearly hasn’t been washed properly as in the photo below. It doesn’t look like it has been in the dish washer at all nor even rinsed off with water.”

    The customer has a photo of the cutlery in the review and it is grim. The pub has numerous poor reviews for this, I’m with the customer….

    Anyway, back to today once again, I get easily distracted. Checking on the beer situation, they have seven real ales available from a range of breweries, including Greene King Abbot Reserve which is about as good as the brewery gets….

    It’s too long ago for me to remember much else about the pub, but it’s certainly a positive thing that the chain has kept it alive and operating.