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.