The Greenwood Hotel (JD Wetherspoon), Northolt

Official site of The Greenwood Hotel (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Greenwood Hotel (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

A new-ish JDW in pristine condition, very well described below. I think I counted 7 ales on draft plus 3 'coming soon'. There was also a very good selection of craft ales and ciders. I had a pint of Banks's Gold Ingot, which was in superb condition. The food was well cooked but slightly let down by the quality of the ingredients – somewhere as good as this could afford to buy better and I'd be happy paying a couple of quid more for a better steak. I found the staff a bit amateurish, but otherwise this is a very good 'Spoons, certainly the best I've been in to date.

This new (Summer 2016) Spoons is a conversion of a classic inter-war ex Courage Metroland barn. An old West London beer guide reveals that it was owned by the JT Davies pub group who bought up the Brakspear estate in 2006. One thing that struck me about it was that it seemed to be the largest original pub I had ever seen. Many of these Metroland barns have closed over the last 30 years becoming completely unviable with fewer people visiting pubs and smaller shop conversions defying the restrictive covenants on new pubs in the Metroland housing areas. It's been converted to one large area but not necessarily by JDW. My old West London beer guide reveals that the old off licence area had been taken over by a florist. It's been more than well described below and I'm not even sure that I saw the entirety of it. One thing I did notice was that the windows and doors were original plus I would think much of the wood panelling. This means that it has the look and feel of an original pub. One of the challenges for this place is that unless you're a keen rambler it's in the middle of nowhere. There is a bus stop on either side of the road but served only by the 487 bus which takes a very long winded route from Willesden Junction to South Harrow Station, although it is a reasonably frequent service. The nearest station is Northolt Park about half a mile away but that is only served by an hourly service between Marylebone and Gerrard's Cross. It wasn't too busy on a Tuesday morning but there were a couple of brats rampaging around and a solitary daytime brigade type announcing over his phone in a voice loud enough to permeate the entire pub that he was "well oiled". The main bar area which is in a U shape has ten hand pumps at the front, two sets of two at the side and four at the rear. The front section was closed when I arrived before midday but I assume any beers there were available. Beers noted were the JDW Trio Of Doom, one available soon, two ciders, Deuchar's IPA, two JDW International beers and GK Abbot Reserve. I was disappointed that there were no cask Locale beers but I think I may have missed another bar. I went for the International Adnam's Belgian Blond (£2.49) and a "craft" keg option Sambrook's IPA (£3.69) both of which were excellent. I thought this was a top Spoons not just in terms of London and the South but UK wide. It's well worth a look.

This is strange - I'm in a Wetherspoons not previously visited byaqualung! Anyway, recently re-opened by Wetherspoon, this inter-war (1938 actually) pub is in a maginificent old building that has been brought back to life. It still retains its internal original layout, thanks to the local council which declined to give planning permission for Wetherspoon to remove the internal partitioning to turn it into a massive drinking barn. But, to their credit, ‘spoons have spent millions on its restoration, much of it bringing the original woodwork – of which there’s a lot – back up to scratch. I was given the grand tour by Phil the barman, who kindly showed me the main bar as you enter; the room on the left (loads of tall tables/tall stools here); an original small bar on the right which was probably formerly the public bar, and has its own bar counter; another small room on the corner which was formerly a jug & bottle bar; the Green Dining Room; and lastly the piece de resistance of the original ballroom. The ballroom is a large high ceilinged room that still has its sprung floor for the purpose of dancing (no longer possible as it’s now full of normal tables and chairs), the skylights thankfully providing some more natural light, and the stage at one end on which is a piano and musical instruments, one of which, as well as the piano, were found during the refurbishment. The original art deco lighting is still present, and there is now a massive urn in the centre of the room. The smaller room with its own bar counter has a cockerel in one of its windows, denoting that this was once a Courage house. There is a fairly large patio area outside at the front, containing a good numer of picnic benches. There are handpumps (loads of them) in the main bar, in the room off it to the left, and in the ballroom. As well as numerous real ales, there are several ciders on handpump as well. They had the real ales listed on a blackboard in the ballroom. I didn’t see any all day drinkers in there when I was in on Wednesday afternoon, which is possibly a first for a ‘spoons in my experience. This is a magnificent pub/hotel (it has 12 rooms to let) that has somehow retained much of its character. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.