The Crosse Keys (JD Wetherspoon), Leadenhall, EC3

A massive and very ornate JDW with a very grand island bar. Has a very good range of guest ales, but can get very, very busy, especially with the post work crowd between 5 - 7. The staff are reasonably efficient considering the amount of people they're serving. If you don't like being surrounded by suits you won't like it here. Having said that it's one of the very few pubs in the area that is open at weekends when there aren't any suits around. There's a bloke selling after shave and other toiletries down in the toilets which is very strange. He seems to expect a tip when you go in, unlucky mate. Overall it's a very good JDW and is one of their flagship pubs.

Big pub that suffers from lack of natural light and guest beers.Supposedly 20 guest beers but only 5 fairly common to Wetherspoon beers on my visit.They do make the effort when the beer fest is on but I have had this problem on previous visits.A very Crosse customer moi.

Massive pub which although full had a pleasant atmosphere and service was reasonable.Food was good and delivered quickly.Large range of ales at £3.15 per pint.

I turned up here today with high expectations hoping to nail some of the beers I had not managed to find during the London mini festival. There were none on at all. I went for the Titanic Captain Smiths which was presented to me with a head of at least one inch. The barmaid topped it up so that it was just over half a litre but it was rather warm and a bit cloudy. I'm guessing it had been sitting in the pipes overnight and that this pub doesn't use the line cooling systems that other Spoons employ to keep the beer in the lines fresh. It was £3.09 but I expected it to be expensive. I noticed that the glass on the skylights was really filthy but that was probably me being picky because the beer wasn't very good. I beated a retreat back East via Monument tube and discovered Captain Smiths in the Walnut Tree at Leytonstone where both pints were full, cool, tasty and £2.25 a pint. This wasn't quite the worst Spoons experience I've had so far this year but was certainly the most disappointing. I expect a lot more from a GBG listed pub.

The original Cross Keys was an Elizabethan (the first one, that is) coaching Inn that stood nearby and was famed for hosting bear baiting and Shakespear plays in its open courtyard although probably not at the same time. The current building was opened in 1913 as the London HQ of the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation and displays all the opulence and trappings of wealth that one would expect of City bankers looking to throw their wealth around. The huge interior is a vast cavernous old Banking Hall with marble walls and pillars, rotundas and ornate plasterwork. At the rear, a staircase leads to a small balcony section and behind this is a sizeable room that can be used for functions and private parties. The central island oval bar has 24 handpumps in 4 banks of 6 and you can usually guarantee at least 9 or 10 guest beers at prices that probably won’t be beaten within the square mile. Small TV’s over the bar have displays of what ales are available and the appropriate pump number. The massive big screen was (and may still be) the largest of its type in London and they regularly show football albeit muted. Due to its size you can normally find a table free somewhere although the place can be a bit hollow when majority of the crowds fade away. It should be noted that it has limited opening times at weekends (closes at 7pm on Saturday and all day Sunday) but they do sometimes open specially for their regular beer festivals. Even the most hardened ‘Spoons detractor would be hard pushed not to have something positive to say about one of the more imprsessive branches of the chain.