The Commercial Hotel (JD Wetherspoon), Accrington

Victorian hotel building, converted to a Spoons around 2011. Was in the midst of redecorating when I dropped in but looked nice and I liked the cast iron bar upper. Newly installed wood (vinyl chipboard) panelling and there’s a tidy Art Nouveau skylight so mildly pubby in terms of Spoons. Five cask, Goose Eye Over & Stout was fine (NBSS 3). Pleasant atmosphere and notably less raucous than other parts of town.

An old Victorian hotel opened out by Wetherspoons in trademark style, lots of darkish wood, carpet which is quite tasteful here, a mix of seating although mostly low for dining. Usual 5+5 hand pumps topped and tailed with T-bars, the casks are fairly well distributed with the evil triplets at one end, a lot of the beers were from Northern Whisper on this occasion. Busy even on a Tuesday lunchtime as you would expect, ditto punters. There’s a raised area to one side, the decor includes a panel about the Accrington Pals* as expected and some music posters and charcoal drawings, more and better than some ‘spoons have. Toilets are upstairs of course with more local interest panels on the stairs and corridors. The staff were mostly pretty good. *The Pals battalions were a recruiting wheeze for the First World War Kitcheners new army, “serve with your pals from your town”, sadly when they were slaughtered like cattle on the Somme it had a devastating effect on their home towns. I found Accrington a very friendly place today and I expect it was more tight knit in 1914-18 so I hate to think what the pain of those days was like.