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Tag: JD Wetherspoon

Rotherham – Rhinoceros (Closed JD Wetherspoon)

It’s fair to say that there are a few minor defects that stop this former JD Wetherspoon pub from reopening. I’m not a builder, but I can see some things that I suspect need fixing.

The pub was the first Wetherspoon venue in Rotherham when it opened in 1998, although the Bluecoat was later added and that remains trading. The pub was closed by Wetherspoons in October 2019, when it opened under new owners and they remained trading until an arson attack in December 2021. It’s expected to be demolished later in 2025 and new flats and retail units put up in its place. I hadn’t realised that Rotherham once had a third Wetherspoons venue, which were all open at the same time, named the Corn Law Rhymer although that’s now looking permanently closed as well.

A few of us visited the pub back in 2017 and these were the glory years when they sold the pastrami bagels. This is the only photo that I took inside the pub, so that’ll just have to do as my memory of the Rhino.

Luckily, the Google reviews for the venue are still visible, so some of the complaints live on even if the building doesn’t. A fair chunk of the reviews were about other customers, including a male who used the female toilets and a customer who kept licking the window.

January 29, 2025
Stafford : The Picture House

I had a spare hour in Stafford for the second time in a few weeks, the first time I went to the Good Beer Guide listed Titanic pub and this time I went to the town’s JD Wetherspoon pub. As it’s suitably comprehensive, I will use the extensive JD Wetherspoon history of the former cinema in which this pub is now sited.

“Built for the local independent exhibitor Goodalls Pictures, the Picture House opened on 23 February 1914, showing The House of Temperley. Blending in with the historic town, the façade has a centrally located gable decorated in Tudor-style half-timber beams in black and white. There is a decorative wrought-iron canopy, which has stained-glass letters spelling out the name Picture House to the front of the building. The original ticket office remained in use throughout its life and is still there today. There was another ticket office down the side of the building, which served customers in the front stalls seating, and this remained in use until the last few years of the cinema’s operation.

Inside the auditorium, seating was arranged on a stadium plan, with a raised stepped section at the rear. There is a barrel-vaulted ceiling, which has decorative bands of plaster. In August 1917, a French-built Reed Organ de Luxe Mustel ‘Celesta’ concert organ was installed and opened by Birmingham organist Mr CW Perkins. The Picture House was equipped for ‘talkies’, and the first to be shown here was The Last of Mrs Cheyney, starring Norma Shearer on 19 April 1930. In July 1930, the Everston family purchased the Picture House, and they operated it for the remainder of its cinematic life.

The town of Stafford only had one circuit-owned cinema, the Odeon, and the Picture House usually played the ABC release or had a choice of independent releases. It had a new proscenium opening installed in June 1955, when Cinemascope was fitted. Otherwise, the building retained it character through the years. In 1989, the Picture House was designated a Grade II listed building by English Heritage.

The Picture House was closed on 30 March 1955 after a three-week run of Disclosure, starring Michael Douglas. There were 78 attending the final performance. The building was purchased by JD Wetherspoon and, after planning permission was approved, was then converted into The Picture House public house, which opened 6 March 1997.”

JD Wetherspoon have a reputation for their sensitive and careful renovations and refurbishments to building and this one is no different. They’ve maintained the old ticket desk at the front of the venue and there were plenty of cinema posters dotted around the place.

The real ale selection.

I think that looks quite impressive. Note the white screen above the bar, as they still sometimes show films at the pub.

Some old seats, which I assume are from here.

The projector.

Every JD Wetherspoon pub has its own carpet, this seems like one of the better ones to me.

I went for the Ossian from Inveralmond Brewery, well kept and light with a little bit of a toffee flavour to it. And a bargain at £1 for a half pint.

I’ve got this riveting and really rather very dull theory that you can get a measure of how well managed a JD Wetherspoon venue is from its Google review score. Decent ones seem to be scoring around 4.1 to 4.3, whereas poorer ones are between 3.7 to 3.9. Big data and all that….. This one is at 4.2, so all seems good.

“First ever time I went to the picture house and last time I will go to the picture house. Ordered drinks beer cappuccino and hot chocolate ,pizza and some fry up for my son and some things that looked like chicken and coleslaw.food came before drinks then one mug was cracked and dirty coffee machine was defective tried 3 times to get a cappuccino and the taste was vile think they did not clean it right I spoke to a female about it and she said no milk in the machine and in general did not care as clearly did nothing no sorry no we can give you something else or a refund on the two drinks.the chips were well over cooked as well as the chicken strips that must of been bought from Iceland or Tesco’s the coleslaw tasted and looked vile and I mean vile and I love coleslaw.my sons steak or cat looked rubber and he just had trouble cutting it.”

Vile I tell you, vile…

“Breakfast was cold, bacon was cooked to the inch of its life, looked like the grill needed a good clean black bits merged with the burnt edges. Vile.”

Another vile.

“Really vile Rude manager half our age. Told off for playing with our autistic daughter (whilst sat down at a table) and she accidentally broke a glass. He then stormed over told us not to mess around, proceeded to wipe the drink off the table onto my lap and told us to move whilst making snide remarks. We ended up Leaving instead of ordering a meal. We are regulars but we won’t be back again. He needs some customer service training!”

And another. This must be a very on-trend word in Stafford.

“the app glitched as i was ordering a curry and it made me pay for two curry’s, as soon as i realised about 30 seconds after i had paid, i went straight down to the waitress and she said she couldn’t give me a refund as it’s my fault and she was quite rude, even though the app glitched so it wasn’t my fault. she also said the food has already been made so the food clearly isn’t fresh if it had already been made after a minute. the curry was also cold. i also emailed the wetherspoons asking again for a refund but they also said the same thing even though this wasn’t my fault. i would not recommend going here”

I think I’d be annoyed too, but then I’d just eat the second curry.

“Had done my shopping before stopping off for lunch, had one of the employees rudely tell me I couldn’t eat my own food in the pub. Not sure where he got the idea I was preparing to whip out my loaf of bread and 2lt bottle of milk. Do people regularly bring their own food when they go to the wetherspoons? Your food can’t be that bad.”

I would love to know the back story. Anyway, I’m digressing once again….

In summary to the whole arrangement, I rather enjoyed this visit, the venue is impressive, the beer selection was decent and the quality of the ale was high. Then I has to rush back for my train, which was promptly delayed.

January 26, 2025
Manchester Trip : Great Central JD Wetherspoon Pub

Another complete absence of photos here, I really must have been distracted during this weekend. Anyway, we weren’t quite sure where to go for breakfast, so for the 592nd time in a row, we decided to go to a JD Wetherspoon pub and we opted for this one in the Fallowfield area. The breakfast is on the lowest price tier here, so a traditional breakfast and coffee came to under £4.40. Bargain.

The pub name does rather sound like this is a central Manchester pub, but it’s located a couple of miles to the south of the city. The chain gives the reason for the pub name:

“The railway reached Fallowfield in 1891, with its station opening on 1 October. The following May, the Great Central Railway line was extended to Sheffield. Edward Watkin, its general manager, wanted to link Manchester/Sheffield with the expanding continental European markets. The station closed to passengers in July 1958, but the railway line stayed for 30 years, used by freight trains. This pub is on the ground floor of a retail/residential block over the railway lines.”

The pub felt a little generic in terms of the building, it’s not historic and so there’s a limited amount I can imagine they could do. The service was though friendly and we were able to sit near to the coffee machine and also near a power point, so that was a win as far as I was concerned. I don’t get out much….. The breakfast was as expected, I’d like crispier bacon, but I’m not going to complain when the breakfast is £3 and especially when I got a runny egg just as I like it.

The on-line reviews are generally positive and towards the upper end of the scale for a JD Wetherspoon outlet. Talking of breakfast requirements though, they got a 1/5 review stating::

“Raw bacon and sloppy egg, never will I dine here again, kitchen staff are teenagers that don’t care, avoid at all costs”

I can see from the photo that the egg and bacon are cooked as I would expect, so you can never please everyone. On which subject, Richard had his Eggs Benedict to show off his wealth to the staff and I think he was content with it.

“Divert this place. Staff are unfriendly and never smile, people rolling around on the floor which I take are regulars. A drunk pensioner was still getting served after falling over three times”

This is the sort of thing that my friend Julian positively looks out for in a pub as he likes a bit of excitement.

“Fight broke out, no bouncer there to break it up. Went on for about 5 minutes before glasses started to get thrown. Had smashed glass hit he on the back and land in my drink before having to head for an emergency exit. The positioning of the emergency exits is ridiculous there was no way to exit the building without passing uncomfortably close to the fighting. Disgusting that this happened at 8pm there was a baby sat at the table across from us. Never again.”

I think that’s a bit too much drama even for Julian.

“Terrible..the staff were very rude and refused to serve a group of pensioners but would give no reasons only they had drank enough..they only had 2 each. They were there to have a family celebration celebrating there brothers 70th birthday ..absolutely disgusted”

I can imagine numerous reasons why and I can imagine they were justified….

“Put the wrong table number manger very unhelpful would not replace the drinks even though we had spent about a £150 that night”

Don’t put the wrong table number 🙂 I’ve never done it, although I remember when Richard ordered to the wrong pub.

“Nothing more than a glorified old pub”

Seems a positive to me, but it came with a 1/5 star review.

“The atmosphere seemed interesting so I sat there and asked if it was possible to eat there, which was confirmed to me. After 30 minutes of waiting feeling like I was invisible, I ended up going elsewhere. Obviously very disappointing.”

I see these from time to time, this was a French customer (well, the review was in French, so I’m making a logical conclusion here) and they were expecting table service.

“There is no window and the air is too bad”

This is a review in Chinese, and I can confirm that there are windows….

“Visited this bar as we were flying from Manchester airport next day , stood waiting to be served drinks at bar for 20 mins at least only to be told they only serve from the middle …….. The bar staff are ignorant and only serve people first that face fits , we then eventually found a seat as to order food only to be greeted by the none smiling miserable faced barmaid we had earlier , I ordered burgers only to be told there were none left and if I need to go back and ask my girlfriend what other food she would like I would lose my place and have to stand again in line in the middle . I ordered something different and yes it was brought relatively quickly for this reason only I give two stars , my honest opinion is if your 25 and under them yes this is the place for you only because you go to college or university with the staff , me I’m 48 and was made to look like a fool when the barmaid talked down to me , obviously wasn’t brought up with good manners .”

Customer thinks staff are ignorant. Customer is confused why they don’t engage back.

Anyway, I digress. We had a little debate about where to go next and it was unanimously decided by me that we should go to a National Trust property. Everyone seemed very pleased.

January 2, 2025
Manchester Trip : The Sedge Lynn – JD Wetherspoon

This is one of the more attractive buildings operated by JD Wetherspoon, the Sedge Lynn located in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

I’ll use the JD Wetherspoon history:

“This pub was originally a billiards hall, built in c1907 on a field sandwiched between a house called Sedge Lynn (demolished to make way for a cinema) and Red Gate Farm. Now a grade II listed building, the original billiards hall (and others like this one, in and around Manchester and south London) was erected to remove billiards from its usual setting of the public house and to further the aims of the Temperance Movement. The Chorlton hall was designed by Norman Evans, company architect from 1906 to 1910. It is believed to be the most complete of his designs to survive in the Manchester area.”

The chain has a different carpet in every pub and this is one of the best that I’ve seen with a considerable nod to their billiards past. I’m not entirely sure what the local members of the temperance movement of the time would have thought of their building becoming a pub, but there we go.

In one of the lowest price bands that the chain have, the breakfast was £3.14 and the unlimited coffee was £1.04, this met my financial and food needs nicely. Richard had Eggs Benedict as he’s more decadent and Ross had fruit for reasons unknown, but Liam and I didn’t judge. The egg was runny, a breakfast shouldn’t have a hard yolk. I’d rather that bacon was served crispy in the US style, but for £3.14 I didn’t have any complaints.

The Gaumont is next door to this pub and it’s where the Bee Gees played their debut performance in 1957.

It’s one of the better rated pubs in the chain, but I thought I’d have a little look at the reviews.

“Waitress dropped BBQ sauce on my son in laws lap, went all over his trousers, all over the table, she never appologiesed, didnt wipe the spillage up and didnt replace the sauce. Not good.”

I liked the bit added about how the sauce wasn’t replaced.

“You go to Wetherspoons because it’s the cheapest. If you can, don’t support Tim Martin and his horrible business practices. The staff here all work hard and are great and friendly, though. Tim Martin (the Wetherspoons chain owner) effectively fired all his staff over lockdown rather than pay them a little furlough money! 😡”

No he didn’t.

“Had the kitchen manager come out and swear at me. As I asked him to please move his car.”

I like to think that there was an interesting back story to this one.

“Me and my Sister have been barred over a minor thing yet bar staff allowed her to be abused on friday by a tall drunk man”

Another helpful review, but I liked the detail that the guy was tall.

“I bought 8 pints via the App, at 2 minutes past eleven. The App took my money, the staff refused to serve the drinks and refused to return my money. 1 week later I am still wainting for my money.”

I can’t even begin to imagine why after eight pints they refused to serve any more drinks….

Anyway, I’ve become distracted again…. With this sustenance, we were ready for our main activity for the day. Well, I wasn’t, but there we go.

December 31, 2024
Gainsborough – The Sweyn Forkbeard

This JD Wetherspoon pub is listed in the Good Beer Guide, so that’s another one ticked off my list of trying to visit every one in the country. The pub is named after Sweyn Forkbeard and occupies what was formerly two shops, opening in around 2001.

The inside of the pub, all suitably modern and functional. I appreciate the amount of high seating as well, my personal preference in pubs. The gaming machines are on silent to retain the quiet pub atmosphere that JD Wetherspoon are aiming for. I also like the considerable efforts that they go to with the local history boards around the pub, I didn’t notice anywhere else in the town doing that.

The chicken jalfrezi and large bottle of Elvis Juice which came in at just over £10, all very reasonable. For the price point, the quality was perfectly adequate and everything was at the appropriate temperature.

And the next morning I felt that I should return for breakfast. Being quite picky, I like that the egg is runny and there’s no fat of note on the bacon. I could have gone to the Canute next door to try somewhere different, but they had annoyed me by offering 33% off to groups of two or more, so I didn’t. It’s consistent, reliable and affordable at just over £5 for the traditional breakfast and coffee.

And the carpet, with every JD Wetherspoons having a unique carpet design. There were also plenty of power points available for customers.

This pub has six real ales and the one that I had, the Lincoln Tank Ale from Pheasantry Brewery, was well-kept and priced at £1.99 a pint. The pub’s craft beer range is excellent, including a few regional cans that were of interest such as the Brownie Hunter from Wilde Child Brewing Company and the Tropical Assassin from Roosters. The prices across the board were low, the venue was clean, the staff were friendly and the ordering process efficient. It was by far the busiest pub in the town and it all felt well-managed and organised. A rightful entrant into the Good Beer Guide in my view.

July 18, 2024
Carcassonne Day One : Stansted Wetherspoons – The Windmill

As there’s limited public seating in the airside part of Stansted, it wasn’t clear where else we would wait for our flight other than at the Wetherspoons at Stansted Airport, the Windmill. I’ve written about this venue before, but it’s well managed, the staff are engaging, it’s efficient and the environment is clean. It’s expensive, but that’s hardly going to surprise anyone. Liam and I had already enjoyed an extensive breakfast of a packet of crisps and a beer, so we didn’t need to have a fine dining meal. I’m sure (well, I’m not, I’m not always very observant) that they’ve extended the Windmill again, as we were seated in a wing that I hadn’t even noticed before. Incidentally, I remember the previous Wetherspoon outlet at Stansted which had around 18 tables, whereas they must now have over 100 tables across the two floors.

I like high seating and I was enjoying watching whether people coming in would go for high or low seating, and the majority went for higher seating. That’s how I spend my time now, with riveting polling such as that. I definitely need to get out more.

I went to the bar to order as they were playing a rather mean prank on customers and pretending on the app that they only had Greene King beers. I was momentarily excited to see that they had Theakstons Old Peculier, but the helpful staff member said that it had sold out within two hours and it had surprised them. I mean, I can hardly wonder why that beer sold out when the delights of Greene King IPA was on….. Anyway, they had Gold from Exmoor Ales and so I had half of that, it was a not unagreeable creamy, smooth and light beer. It also went well with the five decaff coffees that I had, such are the joys of unlimited coffee.

There are other food and beverage options at the airport which aren’t really any more expensive than Wetherspoons, but their beer and coffee options are more extensive and better value. I might try the Camden Bar and Kitchen at some point which has a few craft beer options and although isn’t linked to the Camden Brewery, as it’s operated by SSP, it does sell their beers.

May 1, 2024
Tewkesbury – Royal Hop Pole

Jonathan, Julian and I popped into this JD Wetherspoon operated pub in Tewkesbury which is also listed in the Good Beer Guide. It was a relatively brief visit to this historic venue, an intriguing former coaching inn.

It’s a long building, with wood panelling seemingly everywhere, which dates to the fifteenth century although has some eighteenth century additions to it. It’s been a sympathetic renovation by JD Wetherspoon and it’s also one of their hotels with 28 bedrooms available. The Royal bit to the pub was added after Mary of Teck visited in September 1891. The pub was also mentioned in Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers:

“At the Hop Pole at Tewkesbury, they stopped to dine; upon which occasion there was more bottled ale, with some more Madeira, and some port besides; and here the case-bottle was replenished for the fourth time. Under the influence of these combined stimulants, Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Ben Allen fell fast asleep for thirty miles, while Bob and Mr. Weller sang duets in the dickey.”

In fairness, some of the old world charm has been lost, but that’s perhaps inevitable in a busy and modern pub. I’m fascinated by coaching inns as they provided entertainment, hospitality and comfort of some sort to generations of travellers. Tewkesbury was an important location as it was a stopover for travellers from London, Manchester, Bristol and God’s own city of Bath. There were once four coaching inns in Tewkesbury, but this is the only one which remains trading. The railway was the start of an economic boom for some locations, but not for Tewkesbury, the coaching trade came to a near immediate halt in the 1830s.

We visited during the pub’s beer festival, so I went for a third of three different beers. The Quiet Shadows from Fyne Ales was a drab affair with little depth of taste to it, but the Scallywag from Hop Union Brewery had a decent toffee flavour to it. Continuing on that theme, the Steel & Oak Easy Stout was a pleasant 4% beer with flavours of toffee, chocolate and coffee. It cost around £2.50 for these three, it’s hard to deny the value that they’re offering. Jonathan and Julian went for food, but I found some heavily reduced sandwiches in One Stop over the road. I know how to live the decadent life….

As a sense of scale, the rear entrance to the pub is just to the left and the front entrance is all the way back on that road at the rear. It’s a formidable building in terms of its size.

The pub goes back to the River Avon. It’s one of the best reviewed pubs in the chain that I’ve seen, although with such a beautiful building it would be rather a shame if it wasn’t. Some angry or upset reviews include:

“Didn’t like it. It felt rundown. We wanted a hot drink and they give us a mug to fill up in a drinks machine but could have as many refills as we liked. It was just under £5 for 3 of us. Perhaps that is one of the reasons the place looked like it had had better days as it was cheap.”

I’m not sure that warrants a 1 star review, but each to their own I guess.

“Absolutely crazy place to go always spent loads of money and there 14 of us as a family and the pub don’t like big families after 3 drinks were refused a drink even though we spend £300 at a time not a friendly or peaceful place to be what a shame in a little town this could. Be a nice place to go as pricing in good but this place is awful to go with a big family”

Perhaps it’s wrong of me to suspect that there’s a noise related issued here….

“Today I visited this Wetherspoons with every intention of using the app. When selecting Fish & chips it asked me how I wanted my steak done.”

Seems reasonable 🙂

“Food was good but the sign said no dogs, well our cat wasn’t a dog, she was in a cage and we were in the garden but were still abruptly asked to leave!”

There are numerous complaints from people who were annoyed that their dogs weren’t allowed in, but this is the only angry customer that had their cat thrown out.

Anyway, I digress. There were seven real ales, the venue was clean, the team members were friendly and the building was full of period charm. Quite rightly in the Good Beer Guide and a seemingly well managed JD Wetherspoon.

November 8, 2023
Hereford – Kings Fee

The second pub of the evening on our little tour was the JD Wetherspoon operated Kings Fee which they opened in 2001. The building (which is architecturally of moderate interest, although it’s not listed) was previously used as a Kwik Save supermarket, but as for the pub name, I’ll quote from the JD Wetherspoon web-site:

“The name of this pub recalls the early years in the history of Hereford. The central area around the cathedral was the Bishop’s Fee (or property) and the rest (within the city walls) was the King’s Fee. Hereford’s ancient cathedral is dedicated to the city’s patron saint Ethelbert, the Saxon king murdered at the behest of King Offa on the outskirts of Hereford in AD794. During Offa’s reign, the city expanded. The extended area became known as the King’s Fee, the eastern part including the ancient priory of Saint Guthlac.”

Surprisingly to me, given that this is a city centre location, it’s on pretty much the cheapest price band for the chain and is offering the ‘Top Plates, Low Rates’ menu. Those prices for breakfast really are hard for anyone else to compete with.

It’s a sizeable pub and it was relatively busy on the Saturday night that we visited. It was certainly quite vibrant, but the service was fast and the team members seemed friendly. It is rather difficult to picture this as a supermarket, they’ve done a decent job at converting the building to become a viable pub.

I went for a pint of the Devon Dumpling from Bays Brewery of Paignton, a well kept golden ale which was hoppy although didn’t quite have the depth of flavour that I would have expected from a 5.1% beer. Jonathan was already on double whiskies, a drink that is affordable in JD Wetherspoon at least.

The reviews of the venue are fairly average for the chain, I noted one customer had an interesting experience:

“Food tastes like the carpet looks. Waiting for service had to endure a conversation between a man chewing straw and wearing wellies and someone wearing a cravat, sunglasses and desert boots, thinking he was Rambo. I thought I was on a film set!”

Certainly sounds like they have some customers with character and I can’t say that there’s much wrong with that. Also, the above photo shows the carpet, it’s hard to imagine the food tasting like that.

“I asked for mixed berries Stowford press and she started pouring normal, I then notified her that I asked for mixed berries and I arrived at an very abrupt no you didn’t, to which a few times I assured I asked for mixed berries and she was adamant and very argumentative that I hadn’t asked for what I know I ordered to then she gave in and muttered ” for fuxks sake” under her breath. Disgusting service to what seems like a nice pub.”

If this is true, and there are always two sides, it doesn’t sound like the most optimal of customer service engagements. Certainly a bit of drama for anyone watching though. I’m impressed that they gave the pub two stars out of five in their review given that.

“We came to the kings fee for a friends birthday, the staff were extremely rude. We arrived at 12 and by 5 they were refusing to serve us any more drinks – due to us being rowdy. Understandable that we may have been a little loud, but, this is a pub not a library.”

I rather feel I can tell what has gone on here….

“Refused another drink because we are Welsh.”

I suspect there’s more to this story, but sadly no more details were provided.

Anyway, I digress once again after looking at the reviews of the venue. We were visiting Good Beer Guide pubs in Hereford, and some other interesting looking independent venues, but this was also worth a quick visit as they had a small real ale festival going on. No issues here, but there are other pubs in the town which have a bit more character to them.

November 6, 2023
Leominster – The Duke’s Head

The first pub of the evening that Jonathan, Julian and I visited in Leominster was the JD Wetherspoon operated Duke’s Head. I’ll use their history of the pub, but in short, it’s the former Post Office which is named after a pub which once stood nearby.

“Before the post office was built in Corn Square, there was a small building on the front part of the L-shaped site. In the mid 1850s, it was the premises of dressmaker, Ann Lloyd, later occupied by Susanah Knill. She was the widow of the innkeeper of the Duke’s Head Inn which was located just a few feet away, on the corner of Draper’s Lane. The long-standing timber-framed inn closed in the 1870s and was demolished soon after.”

I’m already going off on a tangent, such is my way, but I had a look at the response of some of the locals when in 2007 JD Wetherspoon put their planning permission request in…..

“5.3.1 The loss of the post office is a loss of a public service.
5.3.2 Already enough public houses in Leominster which are finding it hard to compete with each other let alone the low prices which Wetherspoons charge.
5.3.3 No need has been proven for a further drinking establishment in area. Independent cost benefit analysis would be required to back up need for another drinking premises.
5.3.4 The proposal will lead to rowdiness and attract undesirable elements to the area. Unruliness, anti-social behaviour, vandalism and noise will be generated in the area by proposal.
5.3.5 Change character of town due to scale of proposal and anticipated number of drinkers.
5.3.6 Already a public house in vicinity. Will make situation worse.
5.3.7 Police already have problems in area.
5.3.8 Noise will affect residential amenities of adjacent dwellings.
5.3.9 Problems of litter.
5.3.10 Proposal will destroy amiable atmosphere of Corn Square.
5.3.11 Landscaped area at rear could be screened.
5.3.12 Maybe managed inside but problems will occur outside.
5.3.13 Enough public houses in Leominster and more will lead to more trouble.
5.3.14 The vehicular access onto Church Street is very narrow and delivery lorries will have problems entering and leaving access.
5.3.15 Church Street already busy with problems of parking which will be made worse by proposal.
5.3.16 Large lorries have caused problems to local people over the years.
5.3.17 More use of rear access track will make surface even worse.
5.3.18 Public access along track will cause problems. Parking in local streets by customers will add to existing problems.
5.3.19 Extra cars will be attracted to area.
5.3.20 Not enough room for delivery lorries to turn within site.
5.3.21 Delivery lorries could take light from dwellings in Church Street.
5.3.22 Vehicular access from Corn Square would also be a problem due to narrowness of streets.
5.3.23 The proposal could adversely affect tourism.
5.3.24 Leominster needs to address its social problems.
5.3.25 The proposal would destroy character of landmark building in town centre.
5.3.26 More about demolition than conservation.
5.3.27 Former post office building has strong period character. Loss of distinctive lantern roof and windows is undesirable as they complement fenestration of surrounding buildings.
5.3.28 The replacement building is featureless and undistinguished and gives little consideration to its exterior and surroundings.
5.3.29 Wetherspoons can do a better job of redesign than this.
5.3.30 There are a number of inconsistencies in the drawings, ie drawing no 173, “area to be demolished”, fails to show the removal or covering of four first floor and one ground floor window, and does not agree with elevation no 173/12 and plan no 173/10E. The smaller size of this drawing makes it an easier point of reference making its potential to mislead the more likely. There are other more minor discrepancies between drawings 173/10E and 173/12.
5.3.31 Church Street is an historic street and could be damaged by additional traffic generated by proposal.”

Three people wrote to support the new pub. The local planners were more supportive, and in my view correct, noting:

“There is no convincing evidence to the effect that an additional public house will adversely affect Leominster Town Centre.”

It was all quite pleasant inside and I’m not sure that the world fell in because the town got a JD Wetherspoon pub opening there.

As the JD Wetherspoon beer festival is on, I went for three one third of a pint beers. Oddly they had a beer priced at 99p which I queried as it seemed wrongly priced and the team member and manager had a little think and decided it was wrong but they left the signage up anyway. Perhaps sub-optimal, but it didn’t impact me. One of these thirds was under-measured, but they filled it when I asked. Jonathan was on his Staropramen whilst Julian was on low alcohol Ghost Ship as he was the designated driver.

I went for the Yazoo Dos Perros, a brown ale brewed by a company based in Tennessee, with the beer having some hints of chocolate. The next was the Nut Brown from Adnams and I was aware I had come halfway across the country (or indeed more) to have a local beer to me, with this being quite fruity. The final beer I had here was a favourite of mine which was 1872 porter from Elland Brewery. This was odd, it tasted of bitter Kenco coffee and gravel, I can only think there was a cellar issue or they’re somehow serving the wrong beer. This was the one priced at 99p and they seemed confused what beer was on what line as it was. But the whole arrangement came to around £2.30, so I didn’t exactly feel short-changed.

I liked the environment and ambience of the venue, it was all relatively peaceful and the service was timely and polite. The venue was clean, although I was disappointed at the lack of power points, but that was because I was keen to charge my phone up rather than me expecting them to have them. I had a look at the reviews on-line and they seem average for a JD Wetherspoon venue. One person left a one star review because of council policies and it wasn’t even the local council to the pub:

“We traveled to bridgenorth while on holiday in Ludlow when we arrived traffic getting in to town was so bad because of road work we could only park fo 40 mins as car park was blocked off couldn’t wait to get out of there which took about 20 mins shame because we had been before and its a lovely place get something done about this mess Bridgenorth council”

Helpful…

“Had breakfast this morning. Mine was cold after being stood around for 10 minutes while my partners was being cooked. When they arrived the eggs were RAW and the pancakes were rock solid!”

I’d like to see how these raw eggs were served. Perhaps still in their shell.

“Not good,. Got our order wrong at the till when asked to put her mistake right, she just verbally abused us. Kitchen staff apologized and said it was McDonalds mistake who claimed to be the manageress.. shame could be a great place.”

McDonald’s? Many of these reviews entirely confuse me.

Anyway, it’s a large pub and I’m not sure who else would have taken these substantial premises over if JD Wetherspoon hadn’t of come along. The prices for drinks were towards the lower end of the scale, with a wide range of real ales available as well as numerous craft beers. A suitably refreshing first venue of the evening, but our next port of call would be a Good Beer Guide listed pub.

October 18, 2023
Driffield – Benjamin Fawcett (JD Wetherspoon Pub)

On the drive back from the Smuggler’s Trod, we decided to pop into the JD Wetherspoon pub the Benjamin Fawcett, which is listed in the Good Beer Guide. I will take the text from their web-site regarding the origins of the pub name:

“This pub stands facing the well-known Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, a local landmark since 1880. The open area in front of the chapel was once occupied by Benjamin Fawcett’s shop and print works, before he moved to a house and workshop in Wansford Road. Fawcett was one of the great colour printers of the 19th century and a leading employer in Driffield. In 2003, the Benjamin Fawcett Memorial Gardens were officially opened on his Wansford Road works site. Today, Fawcett’s highly acclaimed prints sell for hundreds of pounds.”

This is the breakfast that I was served. I didn’t notice that there was no egg, but the team member came back around two minutes later just as I was about to put pepper on the food and told me it was the wrong meal. He placed my correct breakfast down and then took my plate (and I had removed the butter) away and to my slight surprise, he gave it to another customer. How the pub thought that was acceptable, I don’t know, but it really isn’t.

The set-up here is also odd. My hot drink mug wasn’t brought over, so I asked when the breakfast was served where it was. He told me they don’t bring them, they’re help yourself mugs at the machines, which means customers can easily just take one without paying. It took me a couple of minutes to get a hot drink and then return to my breakfast, although as previously mentioned it was another customer who got my breakfast anyway whilst I got a nice hot one.

I ordered half a pint of the Stag from Exmoor Ales, a well-kept golden bitter which was at the appropriate temperature and tasted as expected. They had a choice of five real ales, although no dark beers when I looked.

The pub was generally dirty and unclean, with no obvious managerial oversight. It seemed in a general state of chaos, with customer issues arising all over the place so there was an element of fire-fighting going on. It might just have been an off-day, as the reviews are broadly average for a JD Wetherspoon outlet. Some random complaints include:

“Always cold and bad drafts due to staff repeatedly propping g open FIRE exits as a means for customers and staff alike to take a shortcut for a cigarette. Hence smoke and smell of cigarettes is blown in, even though they have a smoking area. Very poor”

Seems sub-optimal….

“Dirty cutlery. Disgusting food. Ordered steak and kidney pudding. How they have a cheek to charge what they do for this tiny, revolting meal I do not know. Will never eat here again. Not surprised so many are closing. Who wants to eat this rubbish!”

I actually like their steak and kidney pudding, so it’s me that eats that rubbish 🙂

“Walked in bought a drink , then looked at the menu , all the meals come with a drink !!! As I’d already bought one , I decided not to eat !!!!!!!! Won’t go in there again !!”

Have two drinks 🙂

“Just had well left the 6oz American burger because it was absolutely disgusting it was the smallest burger and I counted 21 chips honestly the kids meals are bigger it was also missing red onion.”

21 chips sounds reasonable to me (credit for counting them) and I’m guessing that the 6oz burger was, er, 6oz?

Anyway, I digress down the rabbit hole of reading reviews and there are plenty of positive ones. The breakfast and coffee was around £4.20 which is ridiculously good value for money, so I can’t complain about that at all. I can see why they’re in the Good Beer Guide, but it doesn’t seem ideal that the team members are taking meals that have been sitting on a customer’s table and then serving them to another customer. I’d visit again for drinks, I might be a little more cautious about ordering food though.

August 30, 2023