The Sovereign of the Seas (JD Wetherspoon), Orpington

Located along the main retail street through the centre of Petts Wood, this is a typical South East London shop converted Wetherspoons pub. Presumably the pub occupies two retail units, as a row of pillars and supporting walls run through the centre of the room from front to back, suggesting previous partitioning. The servery is midway down the left hand wall and has an L-shaped counter and mirrored bar back. A small seating area to the left in front of the bar merges into a densely furnished front section which is nice and bright thanks to large front windows with pleasant blue glass inserts. High tables and stools can be found in the centre of the room opposite the bar whilst to the right there is a series of banquette booths with really odd, shallow seats making it quite precarious to perch on them. Partitioning walls further back screen a rear seating space with some nice private booths, old fashioned bookcases and access to a rear patio garden which looked a little forlorn. The pub has been decorated with mustard coloured panels, some of which have a nice filigree pattern, as well as the usual 'Spoons local interest boards. Plain mirrors and minimalist modern art prints round things out and there were several TV screens showing the usual muted rolling news channels. There were a couple of regular 'Spoons ales doubled up on the bar and some of those 'Coming Soon' labels, but encouragingly there were also five guest ales and a real cider to choose from. I ended up with a pint of Westerham Spirit of Kent which was served up by an uninterested barman and seemed to be in pretty good shape. This is a fairly by-the-numbers Wetherspoons that, over time, I'll struggle to distinguish from countless other branches in this part of the world. Despite this, there were enough positives to go on, with the rear part of the pub being the best spot where I could imagine settling down to enjoy some of the guest ales. Whilst lacking the 'wow' factor, the pub does nicely round out Petts Wood's modest pub scene and forms part of a satisfying three pub mini-crawl.

A large and fairly large and comfortable pub with a good range of real ales on but this may be because of the beer festival. The 2 I tried were in very good form.

This is a large shop conversion dating from 1995 that is 2013 GBG listed. It is a bit more welcoming than some of their conversions as it is not long and narrow. It's more expensive than most London Suburb Spoons as they are charging £2.45 for standard guests and £2.60 for Premium. It wasn't the prices that annoyed me here but the fact that two of the twelve pumps were totally wasted with the tedious Doombar and London Pride, both more expensive than all of the invited guests (£2.99 and £3.30 respectively). Presumably they must have people buying this stuff, but it seems to me that coming in here and ordering one of these is like going to a Craft house and asking for a pint of Heineken. The other ten pumps had three devoted to the usual two GK beers, Adnam's Broadside, Portobello American Pale Ale, Rooster's Fort Smith, Westerham 1965, RCH Double Header, By The Horns Diamond Geezer and Black Dragon Cider. I went for the Fort Smith (£2.60) which was in first Class condition. This is one of the better Spoons despite the higher prices and the two boring guests.

Randomness Guide to London - Sovereign Of The Seas entry

Randomness Guide to London - Sovereign Of The Seas entry