Wetherspoons Totally Explained

Everything about Wetherspoons totally explained

J D Wetherspoon plc (commonly referred to as Wetherspoons) is a British pub chain, founded by Tim Martin in 1979. It is based in Watford and is listed on the London Stock Exchange, where it's a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Common features

J D Wetherspoon pubs have a standard pub menu throughout the country and serve a variety of low priced cask ales, having over 650 Cask Marque accredited houses. There is often a local ale available. Pubs in the chain generally don't play background music, and usually don't have televisions or screen live sports or news and when there's a television, the sound is muted with subtitles displayed instead.
   Many of the features aimed for in Wetherspoon pubs, such as quiet bars and reasonably-priced lunches, are influenced by George Orwell's essay The Moon Under Water, in which Orwell described his concept of the perfect pub. Several Wetherspoon-owned pubs bear the name "The Moon Under Water".
   Many of the pubs are in large converted buildings, such as cinemas, banks, churches, supermarkets or train stations.
   The decor and fittings tend to be in a faux-Victorian public house style with the addition of photos of the local area and information boards concerning local history. They take pride in the standard of decor in the toilets, some of which have won national awards.
   Since November 2006, some Wetherspoon pubs have offered free Wi-Fi internet access via The Cloud based on availability. Many pubs have Itbox quiz machines.

Pricing

Wetherspoon have a policy of offering low price products; they often claim to offer among the lowest priced coffee or burgers of any national chain. A price comparison chart is often displayed outside the pub, titled "Price Watch" and comparing the Wetherspoon prices to those of two nearby competing pubs.

Food

The Wetherspoon food menu contains a variety of options, ranging from traditional English, Welsh or Scottish pub food to American-style burgers and more contemporary dishes. The chain holds "theme" food nights during the week: "Grill" night (formerly Steak night) on Tuesday, curry club on Thursday and Sunday roast lunches. These theme nights offer a choice of themed meal and a drink at a cheaper price than usual, and in the case of the curry nights offer a significantly larger range of meals. A Chinese food night was operated on Wednesday evenings in some pubs, but has now been dropped.

Name

The name 'Wetherspoon' comes from an old school teacher of Martin's. It has previously been reported that the teacher once said that Martin "would not amount to anything", but Tim Martin has said he doesn't know where this story came from, and it isn't true. The company's employee handbook states that the J.D part of the name comes from J.D. "Boss" Hogg, Tim Martin's favourite character in the show Dukes of Hazzard.

Non-smoking policy

As with all other enclosed areas and in line with English legislation, from July 2007, all J D Wetherspoon pubs are completely non-smoking indoors. Their pubs in Wales and Scotland are similarly affected by Welsh and Scottish legislation brought in previous to England. Additional to this, many JDW pubs offer outside sheltered areas which aim to keep smoking customers warm and dry, and where available, awnings, patio heaters, shelves, tables and even fireplaces have become permanent outside fixtures.

Lloyds No.1 Bar

The company also own a chain of new-style bars, under their "Lloyds No.1" brand. These bars play contemporary music (along with corresponding music videos that are displayed on wall-mounted televisions) and often have a small dancefloor. Some sites change from traditional Wetherspoon Pubs to Lloyds Bars at a specific time each night, thus maximising the potential customer base in a geographical area supported by just one premises. Such "hybrid" pubs are referred to by company staff as WetherLloyds. Lloyds Bar has a similar food menu as normal Wetherspoon outlets, though both the food and drink tends to be slightly more expensive, reflecting their higher overheads.

J D Wetherspoon Lodges

J D Wetherspoon also own and run their own collection of lodges within the UK. There are (currently) 12 lodges in total, with 8 in England, 2 in Wales, and 2 in Scotland. Lodge rooms are particularly cheap when compared with some of their nearest competitors, and their locations go somewhat against the grain of having hotels in obvious tourist areas (for example along the coast), with Wetherspoon Lodges residing in Chesterfield, Henley-on-Thames, Inverness, Salisbury Shrewsbury and Monmouth. Many of the lodges regularly run special 2 nights for 1 and 3 nights for 2 offers, where customers can get an extra night's stay for free.
All lodge rooms have all the normal condiments/facilities one would expect: en suite bathrooms, tea- and coffee-making facilities, remote-control TV, telephone, hairdryer, etc. Customers staying at the lodge have easy access to the accompanying JDW pub (as they share the same building) where they can order from the pub food menu. J D Wetherspoon Lodges

J D Wetherspoon History

The very first Wetherspoons pub was 'Marler's Bar' in Colney Hatch Lane, London N10, opened in 1979; it was leased from Andrew Marler. Many of the other early Wetherspoon pubs were also in the same surrounding area of the London Borough of Haringey.
In the early 1990s Wetherspoons began a policy of routinely selling off their smaller and/or less profitable outlets, often - but not always - replacing them with larger premises very close by.
There are now around 100 ex-Wetherspoon pubs, and all of the earliest outlets in the chain are now no longer part of the estate. As of 2008, the oldest surviving Wetherspoons is the Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington, first opened in 1983.

Further Information

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