Goldengrove (JD Wetherspoon), Stratford, E15

A mid-sized spoons with the usual service issues despite there being five staff behind the jump, all totally unaware of who's next, the usual uncleared tables were numerous. I only spotted five handpumps with just three on, Old Speckled Hen, Wainwright and Oakham JHB which I went for and which they had great trouble pouring, juggling beer between a couple of glasses to get a a full one, finally after a four or five minute wait the resultant beer was not great, NBSS 2 was rather generous on my part. I ended up leaving half and moving swiftly on.

Another Timbo Victoriana-era outlet (1993) though this has had a bit of an upgrade, presumably for the 2012 Olympics. As noted elsewhere it’s a fairly small interior with some booths round the back though there is a sizeable garden. A pointless huge snaking queue that I destroyed (at the behest of a beleaguered barmaid) by just going to the bar and standing in the empty space. Two Portobello as guest beers and my Carnival was, as I suspected on pouring, a watery characterless mess (NBSS 2). Happy to get gone, this is a Spoons for the transients.

Busy Spoon's with a large outdoor area out the back. We had a quick Burger and a pint deal here which was fine.

This large Wetherspoons pub on a prominent crossroads in the heart of Stratford, takes its name from the opening lines of the poem ‘Spring and Fall’ by local poet Gerald Manley Hopkins (“Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving?”). On approach, the pub has a very striking mural on the left-hand end of the building, made for the 2012 London Olympics and featuring a number of notable landmarks. You enter directly to the bar area, with the L-shaped servery over on the right-hand side. The bar has a nice dark wood counter broken by a number of large pillars along its length, and a fairly plain, mirrored bar back. There’s a limited amount of seating available in a small space opposite the bar, seemingly popular with the locals and therefore imbued with the feel of an old-fashioned public bar area. Some high tables and stools have been set out in rows through the centre of the room, but the majority of the seating is to be found over to the left, mostly in the form of basic tables and chairs, with a few padded bench booths here and there. More seating is available in the lower, rear part of the pub, which feels extremely cramped despite only having very small tables served by a handful of chairs and the odd banquette. Décor is typical ‘Spoons stuff, including the usual local history boards and various unrelated paintings and photos. A door to the rear leads out to a good sized patio garden furnished with plenty of sturdy benches. I popped in early on a Saturday evening and found the place pretty chaotic, with lots of yelling, staggering customers and a general sense that things could kick off at any minute. I was just about ready to kick off myself after standing at the bar for about five minutes watching the staff standing around chatting to one another whilst the queues at the bar grew and grew, but someone eventually served me an acceptable pint of Sambrooks Scrumdown, which believe it or not, was the most exciting of the five guest ale options that lined up alongside five ‘Spoons regulars (some double clipped). I didn’t really enjoy my visit here all that much and felt things probably peaked with the outdoor mural and went sharply downhill from there. The ‘lively’ atmosphere was actually quite enjoyable and the garden looked like a nice spot for the summer, but not much else caught my eye and I’ll give this a swerve next time out.