The Boot Inn (JD Wetherspoon), Burnley

Old corner pub now a ‘spoons, neat stone exterior built on a curve, obviously the inside reflects this in the front area, behind is more rectangular. A classic Victorian bar but no doubt with sub divisions removed, it retains (?) a magnificent carved curved counter, renewed tilling in front and one of Wetherspoons unique carpets in the correct period style. Two floor levels; presumably reflecting an original two bar layout, each level has a separate entrance door. Standard sort of tap layout of T-Bar, T-Bar, four pulls, Keg Wine , T-Bar, four pulls, T-Bar and so on, not the same stuff on each bank of pulls, so you need to check both sets out before ordering. I ate in this spoons, lukewarm chips and a halfhearted burger, fine dining Burnley style! Usual kind of spoons punters but maybe a few more being “care in the community” than in other places. Benefits from downstairs bogs although you may be considered a poof if you wash your hands afterwards.

Although this was formerly a Yates that doesn't mean it was necessarily an original pub building but the description on the JDW web site indicates that it was. As noted below it's an open plan L shaped room with a raised area at the rear and a patio beyond that. It was quite busy on my Wednesday afternoon visit. The ten hand pumps had two unused, Bradfield Farmers Blueberry Ale & Farmers Brown Cow, Hobgoblin, Ruddles, Settle Nine Standards No 2 Pale, Moorhouse Pride Of Pendle, Coach House Dick Turpin and Saltaire Galaxy. I went for the Settle beer which was in good enough nick. I actually preferred the other Lloyds JDW to this one but it's pretty marginal.

Built in 1911, this is a rather grand looking building in the centre of town which currently houses a branch of JD Wetherspoons. The pub has an elongated L-shaped interior, with the entrance taking you into the front space which runs left to right. There is a smart looking seating area to the left of the entrance, whilst the bar appears along the back wall, just to the right of the front door. As you move further right, the pub eventually opens out towards the rear, with the servery also turning ninety degrees to follow it. A couple of bays to the front are filled with high stool and standard chair seating options and the windows which they stand beneath have nice decorative etching, whilst the walls have an unusual patterned effect of their own. There are some really excellent local history displays on the walls, in a far greater density than you would normally expect and they must rank as some of the best you’ll find in any ‘Spoons, giving a great flavour of the town’s past. The room is carpeted except for a checker board tile area around the servery, which has a lovely curved dark wood counter with a marble top and a bar back dominated by large dark wood panels. As you head towards the rear, you pass a bank of slot machines and a small nook with room for just a single table, before climbing two steps into a fairy empty area which seemed rather under utilised. Two more steps take you up into the rear seating area where a lot more regular seating can be found along with a TV showing muted news and plenty more old black and white photos. It was rather busy in here on match day, but not as uncomfortably so as in other pubs around town. I counted a total of six guest ales on the bar, plus just one ‘Spoons regular, one ‘Coming Soon’ clip and two unused pumps. The guest range seemed to focus on relatively local ales and I ended up with a pint of Goose Eye Chinook, which was in good shape and served to me by a very friendly barmaid of the sort you rarely seem to encounter in this particular chain. This is another good example of a Wetherspoons pub that works well by virtue of it being situated in an existing pub premises. I thought the layout here worked well to keep the pub essence that is missing in many of the company’s shop conversions and the local history information would put many a local museum to shame. This was a good addition to my crawl and probably has the widest ale range of any pub in town.