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Tag: JD Wetherspoon

  • Cambridge – Regal Pub

    Cambridge – Regal Pub

    I wasn’t going to write about the first pub that my friend Nathan and I visited in Cambridge last weekend, primarily as I thought that I already droned on about it before in another post. But I hadn’t so will now instead. It’s one of the largest pubs in the JD Wetherspoon estate, although it has since been surpassed with some even more substantial venues, not least the Royal Victoria Pavilion in Ramsgate. It’s also the only outlet that the chain have in the city since their other one, the Tivoli, burnt down in 2015 and they decided not to re-open it.

    We popped in for a quick bargain breakfast and I can’t really complain about the value. All to brand standard and to my expectations, as well as being brought out quickly. I’d quite like them to bring the half a tomato back, but I won’t lose any sleep over its disappearance.

    We had a couple of half pints as lunch-time approached, perfectly well kept and very keenly priced. They were the Fat Turkey from J Buckley Brewing in Wales and Citramas IPA from Hanlons Brewery in Devon, nothing exceptional, but something different as I don’t think I’ve had anything from those breweries before.

     

    These are photos I took a few years ago which show the size of the venue, which has the one big area that was once the main screen of the Regal Cinema from which the pub takes its name. There’s another area down a few steps, an outdoor terrace and there are also some quieter areas upstairs. The pub doesn’t take up the entirety of the building, as they share it with Picturehouse Cinemas who have some screens upstairs.

    The pub closed for four days in September 2021 for a refurbishment, but I’m not sure what they did during that relatively short time, but perhaps it was a replacement of the carpet or similar. A refurbishment a few years ago did put in a number of extra power points which was quite useful.

    Like most JD Wetherspoon outlets, the reviews are broadly positive with a heap of angry people complaining that their bacon was cold or similar. Usual small number of people who think it’s fine to insult bar staff, namely this:

    “Ordered our meal via the app. It turned up with no drinks. The waiter told us that drinks hadn’t been on the order and he was too busy to deal with it. He advised us to go to the bar and speak to them and they can add it to the the order. Spoke to bar person who was as thick as a brick who advised me that I hadn’t used the app correctly for the alcoholic drink and was told me that I entitled to a soft drink to which she didn’t even offer to get it. I know it is a Wetherspoons and not the savoy but it has Really poor service. Won’t be back”

    In short, a customer has just not selected a drink on the app and they go to the bar and call the staff member “as thick as a brick”. Nice….

    The environment in the pub is perhaps a little sterile and anonymous, but it’s a huge venue and it’s not going to be particularly easy to offer an attentive and engaging service to everyone. Anyway, for a quick and reliable breakfast, I’m entirely happy with the Regal as it was clean, the staff were friendly and the prices were very agreeable.

  • Keighley – The Livery Rooms

    Keighley – The Livery Rooms

    I wasn’t going to write about the Wetherspoons in Keighley, hence no photo of the front of the pub. But I’m in a good mood (although I’m not sure what relevance that is to anything…..) and it’ll help me remember that I’ve been here….

    Firstly, the building itself, I’ll copy the history of the pub from JD Wetherspoon’s own web-site:

    “At the end of the 19th century, ‘first-class, sprung carriages pulled by grays or bays’ were available for hire from the livery stables which stood next to and partly on the site of this Wetherspoon pub. North Street was laid out in 1786, but was not developed until the 1880s, when it was widened and the first of the large imposing buildings was constructed. In the 1890s, this site was partly occupied by a cabman’s shelter at the front and the town hall livery stables at the rear. The stables’ offices were converted into the Regent cinema in 1920, later to become a bingo hall.”

    This is Keighley in 1900 and the Livery Rooms is located where it says ‘hall’ and there’s pretty much nothing else left today other than the free library. The public baths have gone, the Mechanics’ Institute has gone and the streets at the top left of the map have all been swept away.

    Anyway, back to the modern day. I went for a half pint of Broomstick Bitter from Moorhouse’s Brewery, which was well kept, at the appropriate temperature (my friend Nathan always likes me to point that out) and had a perfectly pleasant taste. Service was friendly, although I was inwardly moderately annoyed as there were two of us at the bar when the barman came along and I mentioned the other customer was first, so he correctly served him. After that, he then went to serve someone who had just arrived at the bar, but I was pleased that this new potential interloper at the bar told the barman he wasn’t next, so I was served in turn.

    The pub was unclean and the staff were ignoring the issue, which I mention solely because I routinely note how clean pubs and bars are, so it seems reasonable to mention the reverse. The carpet was flooded with litter and tables weren’t routinely cleared, although the pub was arguably over-staffed. This ties in with the reviews on-line, which are a fair bit below the average I’d expect for a JD Wetherspoon pub, so there are probably some problems here. Anyway, I should have better things to write about than the relative performance of different JD Wetherspoon outlets. Although I probably don’t since I’m writing this. But, I digress.

    Although on the subject of reviews, I noted this:

    “Manger, I am appalled with your service, my daughter and her friends came for tea as they haven’t seen each other since March because of lockdown and you seem to think it’s okay to say they can’t sit in and eat a meal because they are underage.”

    I’ve heard this before when a group of kids come in and try and get served, even if it’s soft drinks, as if it’s somehow not a pub but a McDonald’s. Slightly odder when the parent goes on-line and gives a low rate because the “manger” is following licensing rules….

    I liked this review:

    “We decided to go in at 11.45 as they were closing soon. Just before midnight ovbiously last orders was shouted. I said i’m not getting another as I had about a 1/4 of a pint left. I think we’d had 3 pints whilst there. Straight after within minutes the shift manager Natalie started shouting can you drink up please as she walked past with another staff member Jake. Both looked very stressed out. I merely said ‘Don’t we get 20 minutes drinking up time?’ Which was replied with a very curt no. The next think the friend I hadn’t seen for years started shouting ‘Let’s start a revolution.’ Jake angrily said to the shift manageress ‘Barr them!!!’ I couldn’t believe this, that kid when he first started there a couple of years ago was a star and I told him you’ve ace with the customers. But that night he was a very angry young man. I told my friend to shut up and led him out quickly giving him a bollocking cos they will bar you and that’s my fav pub”

    I’m with the pub as soon as I saw “started shouting”….. But I’m like that, I can’t be dealing with raucous behaviour in pubs.

    What I can’t complain about is being charged £1 for half a pint of decent real ale, so that was very lovely. Friendly staff, but all a bit rickety at the edges and given the times in which we live, the pub should have been at least a bit cleaner.. The pub opened in 2004, but the chain spent £830,000 under two years ago to modernise the venue and that really wasn’t evident and it’s a shame the pub was in a state given that investment. As an aside, it would be remiss of me (even though it wasn’t the pub’s fault) not to mention for the sake of the historic record the horrendous event that received national attention in 2009……

  • Braintree – The Picture Palace

    Braintree – The Picture Palace

    On the way down to London last week, we popped into this JD Wetherspoon pub in Braintree (a town we were near as Liam want to charge his electric car there, as he’s very environmental) as I hadn’t visited it before, and I felt that this was a sufficient reason to go there.

    The entrance to the former cinema, which was purpose-built in 1935 as the Embassy (the name of which is still visible on the exterior of the building, as can be seen in the top photo). Before it, the Picture Palace had stood here, which was built in 1912 on the site of a former sand-pit and this name has been brought back by JD Wetherspoon. Braintree was growing by the 1930s (and has grown almost exponentially since) and the demand for a larger venue was required, hence the construction of the Embassy.

    The pub is located to what was the bottom left corner of Fair Field in this map from the early twentieth century and Victoria Street now cuts across this site from west to east.

    My friend Richard will be delighted at this, he adores Bells and would swap his entire whisky collection for a few shots of this.

    The interior of the pub and it appeared to be a sensitive conversion into a pub which hasn’t damaged the historic integrity of the building (or at least as little as shoving a pub into an old building can damage it). It’s not brilliantly reviewed on-line, although there’s nothing too serious.

    I couldn’t find any amusing reviews, but I liked this:

    “Came in at 8 to order food. Didn’t order any alcohol. Got harassed at quarter to 8, trying to rush us to eat our food. Wasn’t even 9 yet. No sign showing that was there policy on the door. Rude staff. Extremely rude staff. Do not go here if you want a nice night or evening.”

    I guess that there was a child in the group and the pub were honouring their licence restrictions,something which seems to infuriate no end of customers as they feel their children should be exempt. But, I noted that they arrived at 20:00, but complain that they were being hurried at 19:45. Anyway, I digress in a pointless manner.

    I had a quick half of the Ridley’s Rite beer from Bishop Nick brewery who are from Braintree itself, which is at least some effort to stock local drinks. That tasted very acceptable, although the others on the table just opted for coffees, although I didn’t say anything of course….. As a pub, it wasn’t entirely clean (as Ross discovered when put his sleeve into a pool of tomato sauce, although we all saw the funny side in that – other than Ross), but it’s keenly priced and a decent transformation of what is a relatively grand building.

  • Dublin – Silver Penny (Wetherspoons in the European Union)

    Dublin – Silver Penny (Wetherspoons in the European Union)

    Although I’ve been in a JD Wetherspoon operated outlet in Belfast, I’ve never visited one in the Republic of Ireland or in the European Union (not that they have any other than in Ireland). This is a relatively new opening (July 2019) which is located just off of O’Connell Street and a few minutes from our hotel. Given that it was getting late by the time we arrived at the hotel, this seemed like the most convenient to start the weekend off with.

    I’ll just pinch the pub’s own history as to why it has its name:

    “Irish coinage can be traced back over a thousand years to around AD995. These early ‘hammered’ coins were made from silver by striking a coin blank between two hand-cut dies. The silver pennies were produced for the Scandinavian King of Dublin, Sigtrygg II, also known as Sigtrygg Silkbeard. The silver pennies bore the king’s head and name, along with the word ‘Dyflin’ for Dublin.”

    There was a short queue to get in and it enabled us to work out what the current situation is with regards to pubs in the country. In short, they need to see evidence of the NHS PDF download showing that we’d had both vaccines, as well as identification to show that we were the people listed on the download. Liam, who had forgotten his mask, was provided with one by the pub, before we were then walked over to our table. A perfectly efficient little operation, although I think these rules are all being swept away next week.

    These photos don’t really capture the building very well, but they’re the best that I have and so they’ll have to do. JD Wetherspoon have converted two buildings and joined them together to open this pub, one half is a former church and the other half is a former bank.

    Liam in the main bar area. The pub is only taking orders via the app at the moment, with the pricing being broadly in line with London prices for food and drink. I was surprised just how little localisation has taken place for the Irish market though, it’s nearly exactly the same menu. The relatively low prices for Dublin did though appear to be popular with locals and visitors, so I can see why JD Wetherspoon are investing so much money in the country.

    Wetherspoons don’t sell Guinness in Dublin, but they do sell Beamish and I’m just as content at that. Our drinks arrived after around ten minutes and then there was quite a lot of nothing going on in terms of staff bringing food out.

    After forty minutes I thought that I’d meander over to the bar and in my very politest way ask if there was a delay on food, pretending I hadn’t seen the app estimate that food orders were taking under ten minutes. It was quickly concluded by the manager that there was no delay and our order had been lost somewhere. In all fairness, a replacement was delivered to the table promptly and the manager came over and got us a free pint each as this. I’m easily pleased, and very much liked this gesture. The chicken wrap with chips was more generously filled than it usually is in the UK, although I’m not intending to count the chips as in the now infamous Facebook group that is Wetherspoons Paltry Chip Count….

    All told, I thought that this was a decent transformation into a pub, with the staff always being helpful. The losing the food wasn’t entirely ideal, but they were friendly in resolving the situation. I suspect that JD Wetherspoon will be successful in Dublin, if nothing else just because of their low pricing.

  • London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – The Drum (Being Closed by Wetherspoons)

    London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – The Drum (Being Closed by Wetherspoons)

    I wrote about this pub last year, it’s been operated by JD Wetherspoon since 1986 and is one of the older pubs in their estate that’s still open.

    Drum Sale Document

    However, as can be seen at the above PDF, the company is getting rid of it and it’s apparently now under offer. It seems a shame to sell the freehold of a pub that they’ve operated for 35 years, but perhaps they’re opening something else nearby or there’s a localised problem that they just can’t fix. In terms of running a pub, I can’t think of a harder challenge of taking on a JD Wetherspoon venue after they’ve sold it, as the customer base is going to be hard to please given what they’ve become used to.

  • Leeds – The Golden Beam

    Leeds – The Golden Beam

    This is the controversial new JD Wetherspoon outlet, the Golden Beam, in the Headingley area of Leeds that certain elements of the council didn’t want.

    The building is magnificent, built for the Church of Christ, Scientist in 1912, although it was converted into an arts centre in 1986. It remained in use for that purpose until 2010 and then it remained derelict and this wonderful heritage building could have potentially be lost. The owners couldn’t sell it and then JD Wetherspoon came along and got rebuffed when they tried to get the appropriate permissions. They persisted and they’ve delivered on an incredible transformation of a building, it’s one of the largest in their estate and very sensitively restored. The pub name is intriguing as well, it’s named after a painting by John Atkinson Grimshaw, a local artist.

    The view from upstairs. The council have told JD Wetherspoons that they can’t have people taking part in the Otley Run coming in, which is a popular pub crawl that local students enjoy, that seemed to be the final sticking point that needed to be agreed.

    On the downside here, the pub didn’t have any guest real ales and so I just had a can of raspberry lemonade, not quite the beer experience that I was expecting. But, that doesn’t much matter, I was pleased just to see what a good job the company has done here in the conversion.

    A quick look at the reviews, which aren’t as positive as the company probably wanted. I noted the:

    “Wouldn’t let us in as allegedly I was too drunk, this is based on the fact I said we were on a stag do… not sure how this statement defines a level of drunkenness.”

    To be fair to the door staff, most stag nights done properly do involve drunkenness, especially if the best man has decided that it’ll involve a JD Wetherspoon outlet. They do seem to be a fair few complaints about the door staff not letting drunk customers in, so it sounds like they’re probably doing a decent job at maintaining order here. I can imagine this pub is a bloody nightmare to manage on a Friday and Saturday night though.

    The pub company invested over £4 million here and I find it bizarre that their offer to do this was rejected at one point by the city council. It’s located in a student area of the city and I can imagine it’ll be very popular from that demographic, but there was a variety of customers in today when I visited. The staff were helpful and were taking time explaining the menu to an elderly lady who needed assistance, all very professional. I don’t know how many customers this pub can seat, but it must be in the hundreds across the two floors.

    In short, I was suitably impressed, although more beers would have been useful.

  • Glasgow – Society Room

    Glasgow – Society Room

    The Good Beer Guide is always a reliable source of pubs for me and I’m slowly working my way through as many venues that are listed in it that I reasonably can. For the first time, I’m a little unsure about where it’s recommending me in Glasgow, the choices are sometimes a little generic whilst some really decent places are missed out. I do understand the process for how pubs get listed, which is to do with the local CAMRA group, but the balance seems a bit off here with a focus towards the chains. Anyway, this is another JD Wetherspoon listed pub that is in the book, so I popped in for a quick half.

    As for the pub name, I might as well just quite JD Wetherspoon, who note:

    “West George Street was once home to every bank and insurance company of note. Among them was the Star Life Assurance Society, which was housed in the building on the site of this Wetherspoon pub. Established in 1824, the Alliance Assurance Company was at 151 West George Street from c1880–c1970. In its early days, the Alliance was managed by Stewart Lawrie. He was also ‘local secretary’ of the Westminster Fire Office, another company at this address.”

    This is one of the Lloyds branded pubs which JD Wetherspoon have, so there can be music and other general noise on weekend evenings. During my visit, it was all quite peaceful and quiet. Incidentally, the toilets are really badly signed here, I can’t recall seeing as many customers looking for them as in this pub (they’re downstairs, the entrance to the steps is to the left when entering….)

    This was a little bit of a surprise, the Fraoch Heather Ale from Williams Brothers Brewing Company, who seem to have a deal with the Wetherspoons round here as I’ve seen and tried a few of their beers recently. It was actually something quite innovative and this is apparently a 4,000 year old Scottish style of drink. I can’t say that a heather beer is something that I’ve had before, but it’s quite herby and I liked the strength of the flavours. For a beer that cost £1 for half a pint, this really is quite impressive.

    For a Wetherspoons, this is quite a well reviewed pub, so the local management must be pretty decent. Anyway, this was another perfectly good pub and I can see why it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide given the range of well-kept real ales. As for the pub, it could have been a little cleaner, but the staff were friendly and helpful so it seemed a welcoming enough environment.

  • BLT Sandwich at JD Wetherspoon

    BLT Sandwich at JD Wetherspoon

    OK, I’m verging back into irrelevant content again. But at the Shakespeare’s head, the JD Wetherspoon pub in Holborn, this BLT sandwich is relatively new to the menu. And, since it’s an extension of the company’s discounted Monday to Wednesday meals which are here until November, this meal and drink cost £2.99. It usually costs £5.99 and shouldn’t come with chips, they’re an optional extra the kitchen gave me by mistake.

    I accept it’s not exactly Michelin starred food, but it was pretty good, especially since they used bacon without fat on it. This avoids any Ed Miliband related issues. Anyway, all rather lovely.

  • Eat Out to Help Out – Extension for JD Wetherspoon

    Eat Out to Help Out – Extension for JD Wetherspoon

    I can’t say that I’m surprised to see that JD Wetherspoon are sort of extending the Eat Out to Help Out scheme until their Christmas menu kicks in on 11 November 2020. It means that on Mondays to Wednesdays they’ll be charging 99p for coffees, 99p for all soft drinks, £7.50 for three small plates, £2.99 for deli deals, £3.99 for burgers and pizzas as well as £1.99 for desserts.

    I’m not sure that the staff will be entirely impressed with the influx of customers, but I’m sure it’ll be a popular move overall. Much as Tim Martin is a controversial figure I’m not entirely on board with, his pub company seems to be far more pro-active compared to some of his rivals.

  • JD Wetherspoon – 50p off CAMRA Vouchers

    JD Wetherspoon – 50p off CAMRA Vouchers

    I’m glad I didn’t throw my 50p off CAMRA vouchers away now. Very lovely.