The Commercial Rooms (JD Wetherspoon), Bristol

Good Evening All, just to let you know of a situation that happened a couple of weeks ago here. Below is a copy of my email to our local CAMRA branch. My girlfriend contacted Wetherspoon and just got a non apologetic response literally "blaming our party" The fact it was two of us having a quiet after-work drink this made me pretty angry, so just to let you all know if you want a quick beer in the last hour of opening expect some abuse from the "heavies"..... OR DON'T BOTHER!! I have to advise you all of an incident last night at The Commercial Rooms, Corn Street Myself and my girlfriend were having afterwork drinks in the place, which has opening hours until 0100. At 0020 the bouncers came round and told my girlfriend to "hurry up" her drink as they were closing. This being at the same time as I was being served drinks at the bar! After bringing drinks back to our table I then questioned their actions at the bar, and was told by the bar staff they are "a law unto themselves" In the meantime they selectively let some customers( usually women wearing very little) in and physically "pushed" others back out through the pubs swing doors. They also carried on aggressively telling people to drink up and "get out" while they let people in and the bar staff carried on serving! My girlfriend was very shook up and when I went in to try and find the manager I was physically pushed by a bouncer back out of the pub. We spoke to the door staff next door who work for a separate company and they said they are always hearing complaints from customers who have experienced similar. This has been a re-occurring problem for years now at this one particular JDW establishment, and the "heavies" that they employ really let down the good efforts put in from the majority of the staff that work there... Needless to say I shall never return We even spoke to police who were on patrol and almost laughed it off saying that it's private property and up to the pub how they run it

This remarkable Grade II listed building was built back in 1810 as a private members club for the city's heads of commerce and retains a sense of this when visiting today, despite the fact that it is quite clearly now part of the Wetherspoons pub chain. Entering through some particularly heavy double doors, you emerge into a vast main room with a huge amount of seating space running towards the rear where a large island servery can be found. The room is dominated by a huge cupola over the bar area which acts as a spectacular centrepiece and allows plenty of light into the rear part of the room. A dial behind the bar is/was apparently attached to a weather vane on the roof and allowed the merchants to decide whether conditions were favourable enough to allow them to navigate the Avon Gorge. The walls display huge boards listing previous club presidents, secretaries and treasurers and are flanked by large portraits of notable Bristolians such as Brunel, who were presumably also members. A wide variety of seating options are available from front to back and there are two smaller rooms behind the bar which offer a slightly less cavernous drinking environment. We popped in for a late morning breakfast and found a good number of customers in, many also looking for a morning-after fry-up fix. I think I counted twelve hand pumps in total - some are at the front of the bar, whilst another bank runs down the left hand counter, so be careful not to miss them. They were dispensing four 'Spoons regulars and seven guest ales, with one unused. It was a bit too early to get back on the beer again, so a nice mug of tea had to suffice on this visit. This is an attractive and interesting building that Wetherspoons have thankfully managed to preserve to a degree, allowing the general public the chance to snoop around the kind of place you would otherwise never have access to. I enjoyed this visit and would be keen to return with a clearer head in order to sample some of their beer.

I've been to a number of 'spoons over the years, and would have to say that this is probably the most magnificent of the lot. It certainly doesn't look much like a pub as you approach the main entrance with its massive stone columns giving all the appearance of a Greek temple. Apparently it was originally a private club, and evidence of this remains inside, including wooden boards listing past presidents, secretaries etc. There are also enormous portraits of various luminaries, alumni possibly, most notably that of IK Brunel, plus a magnificently decorated dome that lets in some welcome natural light. The furnishings are the same as all other 'spoons, and a bit unusually this one has a central island bar with drinking areas wrapped around it. There were two banks of handpumps - one on the counter facing you as you enter, and another around to the left, with total of ten or so ales available. The traditional breakfast was the same as all other 'spoons of course, and washed down with a pint of decent ale made a good start to the day following the PuG crawl. As 'spoons go, this is a good one.