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.
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.
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.
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.
As part of a little project that will become apparent (as I obviously don’t already have enough) I’m working through a list of JD Wetherspoon outlets that I’ve visited throughout the years. I’ve got to go back to 2017 for the last time I came here, I focused on other pubs when I was in Bedford last year.
The pub’s explanation for the pub name is:
“This pub is named after one of the most widely read books in the English language, written by John Bunyan, who lived most of his life in and around Bedford during the 17th century. Born in 1628, at Elstow near Bedford, his career as a writer and preacher was enriched by deep religious experiences throughout his life.”
The building, which is relatively really quite large, was formerly used as a furniture shop before it was turned into a pub and hotel.
It is so long ago that I came here that I appear to have ordered wine. I’ve matured a lot since then. I can use my wine knowledge here to be able to narrow this down to being a white wine.
For reasons I won’t go into here, this was a free meal so I had more than I usually would. I note my food habits don’t change much though.
This is I think one of the platters that they used to do before the chain shifted to small plates, I assume that’s some sort of chicken in the middle.
A dessert, I can see that someone else was paying….
And an Eggs Benedict for breakfast, very agreeable. I’d add that I stayed at the venue as well as they have rooms here.
Anyway, back to today and I feel the need to look at some of the reviews and this is one of the better rated JD Wetherspoon venues.
“Disgusting. Was in there for my friend’s birthday and she is a very shy person, playing the Wetherspoons game. We were thrilled to see lots of drinks at our table. However, this was interrupted by a foul mouth female manager, raising her voice at us. My friend was starstruck. This lady was telling us that due to a staff error, the drinks we had already started drinking were delivered wrongly to our table. Despite us explaining the situation, this was met with a ‘Shouldnt have drank those drinks’ and a lack of apology. She then further said that the security will throw us out if we didn’t pay the for the entire bill, which we obviously did not order. Not only verbally threatened, but now with a physical fear, my friend, who is 18, was abused and forced to pay for these drinks. Absolutely horrific experience, 0/10 and I should hope the manager is fired. This was on Saturday 20th September at around 10:45-11pm.”
Hope someone is fired because a customer drank a lot of drinks that they hadn’t paid for? Hmmmm.
“Great if you like to stand in a que. This venue has not adapted to present life after the lockdown but requires customers to que so that staff don’t have to question who’s next.”
This standing in a queue thing is becoming more common at pubs, but it’s hard to not join a queue if there already is one. This is why I use the app to avoid these confusing situations….
“Always so very pleased with the service and beer. Breakfast is a delightful treat, but the extended range off eggs Benedict options has disappeared. I loved those with smoked salmon or black pudding. Please reinstate them. Staff are polite and helpful; toilets are immaculate. However, today my regular Brewdog Punk IPA was out of stock and staff unable or unwilling to tell me when it will be back on. I left earlier than usual. Not happy.”
Always so very pleased with the service and beer, but gives one star….
“I came into the restaurant to use the toilet and when I came out I took a seat for a few minutes and began eating a snack I had with me, I was planning to get a drink but was approached by 2 staff members, one told me I had to leave because I was eating my snack, not even offering me a menu or asked if I would like to order anything, the other female staff member under her breath said I’ll confiscate your food if you don’t leave. As a result of this awful customer service and lack of professionalism I won’t ever be returning to this restaurant. Staff need to consider their behaviour.”
So a customer didn’t order a drink and sat down at a table to eat food from somewhere else. And then seems confused when this is questioned?
“Here on the 9/8/21 19.00pm for my lads 19th bithday meal .totally ruin by the staff who ask for ID. Unable able to give paper ID. But got proof on phone of driving licence. Still not good enough. Totally ruined birthday atmosphere. So left after main meal. Didn’t bother with pudding.Gutted. His dad. Not visiting again .”
In short, customer asks venue to break their licensing rules, the staff refuse and the venue gets one star.
“It’s what you expect to be honest. Reason for 1 star is you cant add comments for food.on the app or add any allergen information. We decided.to eat elsewhere due to not having any confidence with their allergens with only a big screen thing to check.”
The big screen has all the allergen information so customers know what they can order, but the customer hoped they could type their allergen requirements in as a note to the kitchen and thought that would be a better way?
“Under 18s after 9 pm on a Sunday evening not allowed. Even though we are eating…..hmmmmm loads of other people under the age of 18 in there hmm it is their local license policy to keep their license with the council apparently……. Although the law states it is not the case.”
The law very much states that venues to have to meet local licensing law….
“Visited with my 18 year old son after we both finished work at 8pm, had a meal each and he had a cider, ordered on the APP and when it arrived the girl politely asked if he had ID , which he didnt, but he was obviously well over 16, then I asked the manager Nash or Tash, why he couldnt be drinking Cider as it was allowed by LAW, she then told me that it was a pub and NOT a restaurant. I went on the Gov.uk website out of interest more than anything else, and found that by law he was allowed to drink if he is over 16, if he had a meal with an adult from over 18. She then got the 2 doormen (these 2 were very professional unlike their manager) to throw us out. When I left I asked her name which she refused to give me as I want to esculate it. Are Wetherspoons above the law, Im not sure. She told me they have different rules, but surely they must stick to licensing laws and not make tgem up as they go along. I will contact their head office next week to get clarification on their licence laws being as they are different to the Government ones.”
And a customer who when told JD Wetherspoon doesn’t allow under 18s to drink alcohol in their venues, he declares that they must be acting above the law and leaves them one star. I think the Inbetweeners have a lot to answer here for when Will states the law….
Anyway, I digress once again. It’s been a while since I’ve been here, but the reviews are broadly positive. As I can check the real ales online, I can see that today they’ve got seven real ales on, including some options from Oakham and Elgoods. I should also add that it’s in the Good Beer Guide, but I won’t add it to my list of places visited as I didn’t have been there….
[Apologies I published this early if anyone saw a half finished post!]
I was connecting at Katowice Airport to fly to London Luton, although there was no airside connection available. I also discovered that the security area at Terminal A wasn’t open for thirty more minutes, so the process was hardly rushed.
Mine was the 19:45 flight and I had the advantage of popping to the airport lounge, but I wrote about that separately.
The boarding process was all efficient, but there was a particular focus on checking bag sizes on this flight. The lady was walking down the queue and she spoke to me briefly before telling me that my bag was fine, but a fair few were being stopped and charged extra money. One guy was charged four times for his family, so around £320, so it was a profitable exercise for Wizz Air. Although, the rules are very clear, so the customers took a risk.
This lady was charged £80, she might have been a little unlucky. It’s fair to say that she wasn’t very pleased and she asked a couple of us whether we’d been charged as well.
The aircraft is 9H-WAD, yet another one that I haven’t been on before and this has been part of the Wizz Air fleet since 2022.
Everything was smooth and well managed yet again, although the seating Gods had given me a middle seat which wasn’t ideal. However, the flight was only two hours so it’s hardly traumatic. The flight cost the usual £8.99 with my Multipass and the aircraft was clean, the crew were friendly and everything worked as it should.
We landed into London Luton on time and I had a hotel just a short walk away from the airport, which is always something that I look forward to. This marked the end of my one week stay in Poland, Romania and Germany, another successful trip that was made a lot easier with my cheap Wizz Air flights.
After the train journey from Norwich, I had managed to arrive five hours early for my flight. So, that’s just right, no point in rushing these things. The security process was well managed and only took me a few minutes. I was slightly amused as a woman pushed in front of me, which didn’t concern me as I had five hours spare, but I was directed to another security line which had just opened so I went through much quicker. Karma and all that.
There’s a new menu at Big Smoke, this is the sort of exciting drama that keeps me inspired during travel…..
And very nice, the chicken tenders with hot honey sauce, alongside a non alcohol Stella. Definitely a menu upgrade.
Coffee acquired….
The food selection in My Lounge, which does seem to be getting better. They had the usual dirty cutlery there though, I’m never entirely convinced about their food hygiene standards, although I’d note that they hold a five star rating.
That’ll do as a snack, with a tea and a non alcohol Heineken which tastes of ditch water. A completely pointless beer, but I won’t go down that rabbit hole at the moment.
The lounge was pleasant enough, it was quite quiet, but all of the power points worked and there was food and drink.
That’s my flight at 19:45.
And safely at the gate where everything was clearly signed as usual.
The boarding process was smooth and efficient, with a friendly welcome from the cabin crew. As usual for Wizz Air aircraft, it was all clean and looked in a decent state of repair. The seating Gods gave me an aisle seat, but they also gave me an elderly lady in the seat next to me who fidgeted far too much and spent the flight tearing up bits of the in flight magazine so that she could keep the articles. It would have been easier to take the in flight magazine rather than leave the mutilated copy that she did.
One person clapped as the flight landed, but I was pleased to note that other passengers just looked annoyed at him and so hopefully he won’t do that again. The flight was otherwise as usual for Wizz Air, no drama and no delays, with the crew being friendly and efficient as they completed their service.
The aircraft was HA-LGI, yet another one that I haven’t been on before. This is an Airbus A321 which Wizz Air has had since early 2024. I could have done without the bus gate as I had just 32 minutes from landing to get the last train. This took longer than I would have liked if I’m being honest.
The border was relatively quiet, although there was a problem with the passenger in front of me and his European Entry System arrangement. Fortunately another desk was opened up and I was asked if I was aware I could only spend 90 days out of the last 180 days in the EU. I’m very aware of that and it annoys me, but it’s nice that the border control staff remind people. I did think for a while that the delay would mean that I missed the train, but I was fortunate on this occasion.
With that, I scuttled off to buy a 24 hour day ticket for the public transport in the city and meandered quickly to the railway station at the airport.
With around five minutes to spare, I made it, the last train into Warsaw city centre. This saved me faffing about with night buses…. And for £8.99 for the flight, I was once again pleased with the whole Wizz Air experience.
This wasn’t a rail journey of any great note, but sometimes the mundane still needs to be recorded. After a rather lovely few days at Beer Con, I departed early on Easter Monday morning from Norwich railway station. It was quiet, people were focused on their Easter eggs.
There’s the Greater Anglia train to Ely at the back of the platform.
This service was only going as far as Ely due to engineering works that prevented it from reaching the promised land that is Cambridge. That meant that most sensible people were going to London directly arriving into London Liverpool Street, but that was more expensive and so I wasn’t. Although there were points failure and sadly a suicide on that line, so it might likely have been a slower option anyway. It did at least mean a quiet and peaceful train service, as this line can get rather busy.
And arriving safely into the beautiful city of Ely.
Then the exciting bus replacement service from Ely to Cambridge. I was the last person to board this before they thought it had better get going and everyone else behind crowded onto what looked like a nicer bus. This one was far too hot, I’m surprised passengers didn’t get heat stroke, but the driver was quite chirpy although it might have been delirium caused by the heat.
After a quick visit to the new Tesco opposite Cambridge railway station, I meandered to the platform with around thirty minutes before my train. For reasons I’ve never quite understood, Thameslink trains seem to sometimes depart one minute before the scheduled departure time, which caused an argument as one passenger ran to the train to try and board before being shouted to stand back as it was about to depart. I was restricted by what train I could get with an advance ticket, so I had less need to rush.
I thought I would embark on my meal deal at this point and very unusually I didn’t go for the prawn mayo option as I felt that this was a chicken day. I should probably get out more….
The Thameslink train thundering into the station.
The Thameslink service, which left one minute before the departure time, remained relatively quiet, although as there are twelve carriages it’s not exactly limited for space. And, as part of my survey of global trends, I noted that a passenger had his feet on the seats. Not that I go on about this….
Farringdon station where I was changing for another Thameslink train to take me to Luton Airport Parkway. I’m not sure why the route took me through London St. Pancras to get to Farringdon, then went back that way, so I went to a station further south than I needed. There were some young football fans shouting something about “we are the blues, we are the blue army, who are we?” as if they’d forgotten. They were ignored by everyone, which I felt was positive.
And onto the next Thameslink train which was heading to Bedford. This was relatively quiet and everything was on time, so I arrived into the delights of Luton Airport Parkway station which is slightly less annoying when leaving it than arriving into it.
And the walk to Luton Airport, which is around twenty minutes as I refuse to pay for the shuttle as it’s too expensive. The ticket price for Norwich to Luton Airport Parkway was £22 and as it was on time, annoyingly, there was no Delay Repay…. The ticket didn’t work at the Cambridge or Luton Airport Parkway station barriers, but there were gateline staff to let me through. So, one Greater Anglia train, one Greater Anglia bus replacement and two Thameslink trains….
Luton Airport Parkway is one of the most bizarre railway station operations that I’ve experienced. On two occasions now over recent months, the staff here have launched into quite direct attacks about the management of the railway station at a local level. As I’ve never asked a staff member about their thoughts on the management (nor indeed their thoughts on anything), it seems like there are issues and I’m not sure that customers should be bearing the brunt of this.
There’s a problem at the railway station that the waiting room is not accessible to anyone on a timed ticket. Initially I was told that customers can’t enter the station more than twenty minutes before the train and then I was told it was fifteen minutes a few months ago. It’s been on those occasions that the, likely harassed by endless passengers, team members explained the problems they’ve had enforcing new rules.
So, with the comfortable waiting room out of bounds, passengers have to wait here. I just waited without saying anything, but when I tried to put my ticket through at the barrier fifteen minutes before the train left, it failed. There was a staff member sitting down nowhere near the barriers by a heater who managed to get called an “a***hole” by one passenger he ignored, although he didn’t come and help me.
I got the attention of another staff member and she was very friendly and let me through. She said that the rules had changed again and that customers couldn’t enter the railway station with a timed ticket until the previous train had departed. It’s to stop them boarding it with a timed ticket…..
The train arrived on time and it was hard not to miss Poland, where I had just returned from. They have the radical idea that passengers on their services can always use their waiting rooms to wait in. It’s all a bit sub-optimal from Thameslink, especially given the huge sums of money invested in this railway station over recent years.
I’ve already mentioned that there was a bit of a delay getting to the Etiuda lounge, but it was peaceful and calm when I got here.
The food selection which was all looking nicely presented and appetising.
Delicious.
With all my devices charged and having had enough food and drink, I departed for the gate. The bad news is that it was a bus gate.
The good news was that I was nearly the first to board the second bus to the aircraft, which meant I had some space to stand in the corner. Little victories and all that.
There was a group of quite loud British people who were excitedly telling each other what marvellous drugs they’d taken in Poland and they were going to get drunk on the plane. More of that soon.
Anyway, the aircraft was 9H-WNY and I haven’t been on it before, but it’s yet another new aircraft having only been delivered to Wizz Air in 2025. Their fleet is certainly mostly new and shiny….
The flight was smooth and, yet again, free of any issues. The seating Gods gave me a middle seat, but the people either side were both quiet and didn’t fidget about, so it was a smooth flight.
Back to the lads who claimed that they were going to get drunk on board…. They didn’t expect the Polish crew to reject their demands. Impeccably handled by the crew, the whole arrangement felt safe, well managed and professional.
And back at Luton Airport….. Wooo. We were actually slightly early and there were minimal delays at the border, which meant that I was rather early for my train.
The flight cost £8.99 and Wizz Air didn’t let me down here. A clean aircraft, efficient boarding, a friendly crew and everything felt well managed.
