The Boot Inn (JD Wetherspoon), Burnley

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.

This is the better of the two Wether's with a lot more character and a more colourful set of customers on this afternoon visit. A reasonable selection of 6 guest ales. I thought it felt like a traditional pub than most Wether's.

Used to be the old Yates Wine lodge not changed much same bottler coolers very low down but at least we got served her not like the other spoons clean and tidy

Large building opened out to form a split-level 'L'-shaped layout with a range of seating areas. Usual furniture and decor, but otherwise still retaining much of its original pub character. Rear patio beer garden plus a few small tables on the front pavement. Nine of the ten handpumps were on when I visited, including a nice pint of Lytham Stout at the splendid price of £1.79.

The Boot is unusual for a Spoons in that while there's plenty of character externally, it hasn't all been stripped away internally. It looks as though the original large, curving wooden bar has been kept and there are various other 'individual' touches which mark this out a cut above the normal Spoons drinking barn. Ales on were Goose Eye Chinook and Pommies Revenge, Abbot, Moorehouse Pendle Witches Brew, Naylors Kravenbrau, Bridgehouse Morland Bitter and Ruddles Best. A fair selection but as with so many of the chain, we couldn't find anything which warranted a second. A fair fallback in Burnley if you need it.

Wetherspoons have revived an old pub,so hats off to them.The internal decor tries to retain a Victorian pub feel but the furniture and menus everywhere is unmistakenly 'spoons.However the wooden bar back and photos of Burnley in it's heyday do add some character to what is essentially an open plan interior on different levels. It makes it into the 2012 GBG on the strength of it's ten handpumps which were offering a wide selection of Locales,with only two handpumps taken up by the obligatory GK Abbott and Ruddles Best.There was even room for an Old Rosie cider. Ale quality was fine but dozy service didn't give a good first impression.However at least it was open on a Monday evening unlike two other GBG listed pubs,The Ministry of Ale and Bridge Beir Huis.Had they been opened,I am not sure this review would have occurred,despite this being an above average part of Tim's empire.