Posted without any real comment, just I’m not sure that I’ve seen pub signage on an inter-war building quite like this. Made up of bits of wood nailed together it’s quite quirky and has some character, although I suppose quite thrifty…… But if you need a sign and have some wood, it’s perhaps a sensible choice.
After an overnight coach journey with National Express, I felt that I deserved a coffee and I knew a place that would do unlimited coffees for £1.89. This is the JD Wetherspoon operated Commercial Rooms, which they’ve been running since the 1990s, so it’s one of their earlier venues outside of London.
It’s a grand building internally and the chain give the history of the name:
“Situated in the heart of Bristol’s old city and opposite the historic Corn Exchange, The Commercial Rooms was built in 1810 as a meeting point for the city’s traders. The retained weather vane, above the bar, would let merchants know whether it was safe for ships to negotiate the treacherous Avon Gorge. The three statues at the top of this grade II listed building represent Bristol, commerce and navigation.”
It’s one of the smaller JD Wetherspoon venues, there’s the main room and then a back room that was once a meeting area, with the toilets located upstairs. They had an impressive seven real ales available including options from Thornbridge, Brains and Otter, all priced at under £4 a pint.
I sat near the coffee machine as I thought that would save time.
My now obligatory carpet photo.
As it’s a JD Wetherspoon venue, I feel obliged to have a little look at the reviews, which are broadly in keeping with the chain’s average across the country.
“If you want to hang out with friends and have a fun time, don’t go to commercial rooms. The atmosphere was awful, no music at all and the dim lighting is horrendous”
Perfect. No music.
“The security was so rude and very aggressive. He said he doesn’t take BRP. Im international student and if we can not use BRP, we can use E-visa. No one goes around carrying Passport, which is the most important document while staying abroad”
I carry my passport. No ID, no entry….
“The bouncer informed us that Wetherspoons management had installed microphones around the pub to listen in to what the customers are talking about.”
They haven’t.
“Not Pet friendly. Went elsewhere.”
Disappointingly, this is the only negative review about someone not being allowed their dog inside. Well, I assume it was a dog they tried to bring in, I suppose that it might have been a cat.
Now there is one review of a pint of Guinness with absolutely no head and that does seem to be a very valid complaint, it would be hard to pour a Guinness like that. A deserved 1 out of 5 if that is genuinely true and it was from three years ago, so more unlikely to be AI generated.
“Waiter told 2 year old to shut up on a Saturday affernoon”
Reasonable.
Anyway, I was entirely content at this visit, the team members were friendly, it was pretty clean and I had several coffees for £1.89. And the building had some history to it, which always adds positively to a visit for me. I’ve visited this one a few times over the years and for a cheap coffee (well, several coffees), it certainly didn’t disappoint.
After the first part of my coach journey from London Luton to London Victoria coach station, it was now time for the second part which would get me to Bristol. I’ll note here that I was getting a coach because GWR’s fares are far too expensive and although I do enjoy trains, I prefer not to fund them as though I am making a modest contribution to railway infrastructure personally.
O2 give me one baked item, or coffee, at Greggs for £1 every week, so I thought now was an ideal time to get a chicken bake for £1. It was hot and delicious.
I managed to find a seat at the packed gate. It is not an especially glamorous place if I’m being honest, but it does at least provide a useful reminder that all forms of travel eventually involve sitting near strangers and hoping everyone behaves. Unless you’re my friend Richard who tries to avoid people unless it’s in a VIP area.
Much as I’m sure these warnings are useful to avoid anyone doing something dangerous, a number of passengers were struggling to read the departure information which is a little lost at the bottom of the screen.
And time to board.
And the emergency exit row seat again, very lovely.
This turned into something of a sleeper service for me as I fell asleep in London and woke up in Bristol. This tells its own story that the coach must have been peaceful and the driving smooth, so I was suitably impressed and refreshed ready for the excitement of Bristol which I knew was going to involve food, craft beer and a museum. And is there anything more to life?
It was another reminder though that National Express services seem to be getting quieter, it might now be the time to increase the space between seats and address some of their high pricing, before FlixBus steals their entire market. FlixBus are getting a little bit unstoppable, they’re already knocked most Megabus services out of business…..
This artwork was stencilled onto this wall on Frogmore Street in Bristol by Banksy in 2006. My photo is from 2013, after the artwork was vandalised with a paintball gun which had fired blue paint at it, but before it was attacked with black paint. It’s five metres up from the floor, which required Banksy to erect scaffolding and the council discovered the artwork when they removed that structure.
Although Banksy had been painting on walls in Bristol for some time before this, the artwork gave the city council a challenge. They were against graffiti on buildings, but the works produced by Bansky proved popular with locals and they were of a higher quality than much of the other graffiti that was scrawled onto walls. So, in this case, the council went along with it and it has remained in place since.
This statue was taken down and thrown into the river today, although since it was a listed monument I imagine it’ll be recovered and then placed in one of the city’s museums.
Here’s my original post about it, namely as I liked the anti-slavery display around it.
A few weeks ago, I was in the stage of being very pleased at how efficient and honourable many hotels were being at cancelling hotel stays. A couple of hotels explained to me that they were struggling, so I’ve postponed rather than cancelled a few of my stays as I appreciated their honesty.
As over 1,500 people saw judging from the page views number, I also posted positively about Hampton by Hilton in Bristol, they cancelled on me and confirmed promptly themselves they’d refund in full. Hotels.com also confirmed this, and explained that the refund had been completed. Then, and the story is quite long and I’m not repeating it in full just yet, hotels.com explained that the hotel had seemingly changed its mind.
After weeks of confusion, hotels.com confirmed that the hotel is refusing a refund and is offering only a heavily restricted voucher instead. I’m not at all content at this sort of behaviour, it puts people off booking hotel rooms at a time when the hospitality industry needs all the support that it can get.
So, I’ve asked the two press offices for permission to post from some of their e-mails, which are a convoluted mess of chaos and confusion. I don’t much mind long delays, as this is a difficult time when hotels are suffering, but this sort of deliberate obfuscation isn’t perhaps ideal and reflects badly on the hotel industry.
Hotels.com have since informed me that the hotel has withdrawn the refund option. Will repost about this….
The third in my series of hotels that I never got to stay at due to the coronavirus….. But, I like to post about positive experiences and this hotel refunded my non-refundable booking that I had made via hotels.com. This is particularly positive as I hadn’t yet contacted this hotel, so it was an entirely pro-active refund. I will try to ensure that I visit the hotel in the future, they’ve made this process entirely painless.
Reassuringly professional.
I can’t write much about this hotel, as this was a cancelled stay due to the Coronavirus. But, I wanted to note how helpful the hotel was in what must be trying circumstances for them. I paid for this booking, which was for the two days after the now cancelled Rambers General Council, primarily through loyalty points and the helpful hotel staff member wanted to check with Accor that I could get the points back if they processed the cancellation. They confirmed I could and I have within just a couple of hours got them back in my account.
Swift, efficient and polite – an impressive response time from Accor.
This substantial brewery restaurant opened in 2004 and was purpose-built to meet the needs of Zero Degrees.
A view down over the bar area.
The clever design of the pub meant that we were able to see this brewery equipment, all adding to the character of the location.
Ready for pizza…..
Some nice glasses…..
And the pizza, the sweet and spicy Italian sausage. Very lovely, lots of flavour although I’d have preferred a slightly crispier base. The price was reasonable and the food was brought over promptly, so there was no long wait. We weren’t sure how easy it would be to find a table for five for food in Bristol, but there was a reasonable amount of space here and so we were seated immediately.
Not that it would have mattered as we were there on a Friday, but the restaurant has resorted to a buy one get one free with Tastecard, a sign to me that a location isn’t performing well. They might be doing perfectly well, but I wouldn’t go back knowing that they were ditching out food cheap like this without it being offered to loyal customers.
The service was quirky and the server had a rather dry wit, but he came across as friendly and welcoming. The environment was pleasant and despite the harshness of the interior design, it was still comfortable in the dining area.
A little bit random, but this is St. John’s Conduit, located at St. John on the Wall Church on Broad Street. This was originally installed to bring water to the Carmelite Friary in the fourteenth century and it is rumoured that it ran with wine during elections in the city.
The information plaque at the conduit. Part of the original route of the conduit is apparently marked on the pavement by small plaques, but I didn’t know about this at the time to look out for them.
And a sign nearby informing those passing by that the conduit had been the only source of fresh water in the city during the Second World War.
