St Matthews Hall (JD Wetherspoon), Walsall

St Matthews Hall is a Lloyds No.1 with a bar counter up the right that supports standard and premium keg alongside two banks of five hand pumps. The cask options during my recent midweek early evening visit were Ruddles, GK Abbot Ale, Sharp’s Doom Bar, Salopian’s Day of Days and Hop Twister, Black Hole Brewery’s Super Nova and Byatt’s Brewery’s Comet IPA. The Hop Twister was a decent drop. The bar counter faces a high tables that run up the left hand wall either side of a square parquet floored seating area. At the rear is a conservatory with sunken seating and a large sloped glass roof. I was unaware of the rear section of the pub, only noticing it as I walked up the side of the pub after leaving. I had thought that this was very small for a Spoons. I enjoyed the Hop Twister, but I struggled to get comfortable so I wouldn’t go out of my way to revisit.

Nice building and always busy. There was a choice of 4 ales on but 3 of them were porter's / stout's. The other was a fairly awful "fruity" beer, the name of which I seem to have blocked from my memory! Having said that I always call in when I am in the area.

Fairly average sort of Wetherspoon's in an historic building. Beer seemed in good condition though.

This Lloyds No 1 (or is it now a regular 'spoons?) is housed in a very grand old building (at least at the front but perhaps not the conservatory extension at the back...), being an old courthouse (and originally a Victorian subscription library). The interior, however, is a bit of a disappointment with little character left. Features quite a lot of patio tables out in the square (although hardly the weather for that when I visited). Reasonable selection of real ales from two banks of five handpumps, including two from Sadler's (from which I went for the Peaky Blinders black IPA).

What looks like a very small Wethers on entering is actually not so. Depending on which entrance you use you will find the bar to your, right if you use the side entrance or ahead of you if you use the front. Its basically a 3 area pub with a conservatory, a room to the side of the bar and the main area where the servery is. Not the best selection of real ales on this visit but its a nice enough Wethers.

This is set in a grand listed building as can be seen from the pictures. There is little external signage possibly because of the listed building status. Inside it's smaller than you would think from the exterior and has a generally more modern look. The bar is on the right as you enter up the steps and there is a conservatory and patio at the rear. The fixtures and fittings are a bit more varied than the norm and better quality. It is a Lloyds so probably turns into a nightmare late on Friday and Saturday night, although the only evidence of it being one on my Saturday morning visit was the fact that the menus were in Landscape format rather than the usual Portrait. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps which on my visit had the two GK beers doubled up, Doom Bore, Everard's Nutcracker, AJ's Stuck Blonde, a cider, Salopian Lemon Dream and Backyard Bad Santa. I went for the Backyard Bad Santa at £2.70 which sounds expensive but is a 6.8% beer. I liked this Spoons especially considering it's a Lloyds.