The Red Lion (JD Wetherspoon), Bitterne, Southampton

The Red Lion opened as a JDW on 28th March 2017. This is an original pub that according to the JDW web site was built in the 1860s. The Wetherspoon incarnation of it looks much more modern. You have to go through a front patio garden to get inside. On my midday visit on a hot sunny Thursday this was full of people intent on risking getting skin cancer as well as the usual nicotine brigade. There must be a wheelchair entrance somewhere but I didn't see it. Inside the ground floor seems to be just the original pub but I may be wrong. It's an open plan room split into different areas with the bar at the rear. Upstairs are the toilets (inevitably) and a smaller eating area by the kitchen. There is also a balcony overlooking the front patio. The food service area downstairs consists of a couple of lifts and a hot plate. The fixtures and fittings are a bit better than usual but downstairs at least they are rather crammed in. Like most new Spoons they have the Pizza option which I assume is on trial and I noticed the food clubs are dearer then average. The bar has twelve hand pumps which had the JDW Trio Of Doom with Ruddles & Doom Bore doubled, two ciders, Fallen Acorn Twisted Oak, MASH Copper Ale, Everard's Arcadia Session IPA, Orkney Dark Island and Adnam's Lighthouse. I went for the Twisted Oak (£2.39) which was excellent. I found this to be a reasonably good Spoons. I can't see many regular correspondents getting to it as it's a bit off the beaten track.

JD Wetherspoon has bought the Red Lion in Bitterne precinct for £650,000.