Hamilton Hall (JD Wetherspoon), EC2

Located inside a former hotel ballroom, the Hamilton Hall is a particularly decorative and spacious Wetherspoons pub, forming part of the Liverpool Street station buildings. The scale of the room, with its large open area around the servery and high ceilings, certainly creates the feel of a drinking barn, but this is at odds with the ornate interior which boasts a number of large ornamented wall paintings and a most impressive ceiling with huge candelabras and all manner of decorative touches. Two principal seating areas exist on the ground floor, with the left hand side of the room practically filled with tables and chairs (and scaffolding on my recent visit), whilst a more modest strip of seating runs along the front windows. To the right of the bar, a staircase leads up to a surprisingly large gallery with a part tile, part carpet floor. There’s plenty of comfortable seating available and I thought it was quite a nice spot, especially if you can get a view overlooking the bar below. There is a bar upstairs, which has a limited number of hand pumps, but it’s best to order at the main bar before moving upstairs, as there are ten hand pumps there which were offering five or six guest ales and a real cider, plus a few ‘Spoons regulars on my visit. I tried the Adnams Kristal White (£3.10), which was decent enough and contrary to some of the experiences noted below, I found the staff to be pretty efficient as far as ‘Spoons staff go. The grand interior singles this place out above the masses of identikit Wetherspoons pubs up and down the country. I’m not convinced that there is a stand-out pub near Liverpool Street station, so the Hamilton Hall is certainly worth a look on occasion when passing through the area.

Below average 'spoons - you've got to be thirsty to wait here for a drink. Service poor and beer below average.

Opens early if you fancy a livener. Usually pop in en route to White Hart Lane as a starting point for the days onslaught of ale.

Good Beer Guide 2010 listed pub at the entrance to Liverpool Street. Open plan with a mezzanine, its highly decorative as below but suffers slightly from the Wetherspoons treatment, but its ok

This is a Wetherspoons located in a very impressive hall, as the name would suggest and previous reviews have mentioned. There is room for hundreds of drinkers at the two bars and there is also some seating out the front next to one of the entrances to Liverpool Street Station. One of the plasma screens on the left hand side wall was off, but the other was showing live departure times for those grabbing a quick pint after a long day at work. I counted ten hand pumps on the main bar and six of these were duplicated on the upstairs bar. As usual for JDW there are drinks promotions and the food is very cheap for the area. There are much better pubs across the road, but it is worth popping in here for a look at the setting and décor.