The Central Hotel (JD Wetherspoon), Deeside

This place was busy and noisy on my Saturday midday visit with younger folk drinking from bottles of lager and shouting at each other. It's quite a decent conversion of what appears to be an original pub with some wood panelling on the walls. The beer choice wasn't great with doubling up and two local beers with clips showing that had gone off, a practice that is annoying, unnecessary and deceitful. Available were Ruddles Best, London Pride, Hanlon's Stormstay and Lymestone Stonefish Mild. I went for the Stormstay (£2.15) which was in good condition. Despite a better than average interior I found this one unimpressive.

This Deeside pub was built in 1943 and after being called The Royal Charter for a decade or so opened in 2010 and after a one million pound plus redevelopment was unimaginatively named The Central Hotel (Although the pubs original name there must have been some iron and steel industrialist in the Shotton area worthy of the honour) Called in on a Wednesday afternoon and was quite surprised to find the pub very quiet.There was the usual standard beers on show and the now ever frequently seen couple of pumps with the "coming soon" clip on.There was a modest number of tributes and acknowledgments to the local steel industry but nothing special and found it just another run of the mill Spoons pub.