The King Of Wessex (JD Wetherspoon), Bath

This modern branch of a Wetherspoon's is not immediately obvious until you get close. It sits at the entrance to an entertainment complex featuring other dining establishments and a cinema. The interior is one large open-plan room, with a slightly raised area at the rear for families. It's all fairly bland and typical of most branches. Standing at the bar waiting to be served, I soon became aware that an orderly queue had formed, mostly with people waiting to place food orders. I'm fairly convinced that I'd got there before the queue had formed, but bar staff proceeded to ignore me in favour of the newly-formed queue. I did at least manage to dispense of a CAMRA 50p voucher for two halves, when I was eventually served. Customers are the usual 'spoon's characters. One guy decided to take his pitcher of some strange coloured liquid with him out of the front doors. God knows where he went with it, but I never saw him return. However, there was a good mixture of young and old. Beers were the usual Greene King Abbot, Ruddles Best, Sharp's Doom Bar, along with Exmoor Gold & Little Valley Tod's Blonde as guests. Ciders are not in the fridges, as in most branches. So, they are not instantly noticeable. However, I did eventually spot a couple of boxes on the left side of the bar and some much further over. They had Weston's Old Rosie & Rosie's Pig, Gwynt y Ddraig Black Dragon & Harry's No. 8.

How have I never done this Spoons before? Set in a modern cinema/leisure complex, it's long, narrow and relatively bland though not unpleasant, with a blush red, green and white colour scheme. Four guest cask and my Adnams Extra was in excellent shape (NBSS 4) and my food arrived efficiently. Absolutely heaving at 7.15 on a Tuesday night and I got the last free table (that wasn’t covered in detritus, anyway), Timbo needs a second outlet in central Bath. Other reviewers have quite a downer on this one but I thought it was fine, in context. 6.5

Not JDW’s best, as mentioned below.  The customers in seemed to be Bath’s less prosperous and healthy, indeed it felt a bit like the waiting room for a soup kitchen, and included a family group of overweight savages stuffing their slime burgers into their mouths with their hands, ketchup and all – on reflection it’s probably not a bad thing, as they didn’t look like could be trusted with cutlery.  That, with the firepit in the middle of the bar, made it feel very Mesolithic.   The staff were very offhand and didn’t engage at all other than in an impatient, churlish manner.  On the plus side there was a sign asking that all children be removed from the bar by 9pm, though whether those at whom it was aimed could read it is debatable.  Ales on were Doombar, Abbott and Ruddles, the latter at 99p per pint, plus Burton’s Stairway to Heaven.  Ciders on were Rosie’s Pig and Black Rat.  I shan’t be rushing back. 

a below-average Spoons, perhaps a little more tranquil than some but a very disappointing range of beers with only one or two above the standard group. Not one of their best by any means.

Official site of The King Of Wessex (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The King Of Wessex (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Another GBG 2017 choice by the local CAMRA branch and another looser.A faceless drinking barn with a sea of pine furniture ,4 fruit machines taking wedge off the unthinking and nothing of note internally in a purpose built outlet.There are two sets of 5 handpumps but on my visit the trio of doom,namely Ruddles Best,GK Abbott and Doom Bar were all doubled up ,leaving guests Maxim Maximus,Everards Sunchaser,Flying Monk Birdman (sweet rubbish,utterly rank) and one clip available soon.Now I know why folk drink lager. It's totally corporate,one of the worst 'spoons I've ever visited and a major Avoid in future.

This is a modern Spoons which is part of an entertainment complex and is much smaller than I expected. As noted below it's a dull long room but at least the toilets are situated at the rear rather than at the end of a Stairway To Heaven. There is a small raised area at the back and one of those stove thingys in the middle. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps which had two available soon, the JDW Trio Of Doom doubled, Everard's Ascalon and Springfield Roaring Meg. I went for the Roaring Meg which was in good nick. This seemed to be a reasonably run Spoons but the fact is it's a city centre JDW that is also GBG listed so a choice of just two viable ales is just not good enough.

Ten handpumps along the bar on our visit, with a dull and boring selection. Eventually decided on the Coach House Special Reserve, which was ok. A handy spot to finish or start a crawl as it is fairly close to the bus and train stations.

A modern, purpose built Wetherspoon’s which is part of an entertainment complex which also houses a cinema and a number of other restaurants and such like. It has little in the way of any character, and isn’t one of the better examples of the companies pubs, in my opinion. It is however conveniently situated just a couple of minutes stroll from the Theatre Royal and other local attractions. Inside it consists of one long and relatively narrow room with a bar counter to the left at the front. There are good sized windows across the front of the pub as well as up most of the right hand side which overlooks the neighbouring Costa, TGI Friday’s, etc. The rear area is perhaps more intended for dining, but decor wise it’s very similar with blue patterned carpet on the floor and plenty of packed in tables. There was some tiling in front of the bar counter, which had something of an art deco look to it and there was a small amount of wood panelling on the walls in a couple of places. A couple of pictures denoted various scenes from the “Georgian City” such as historical figures and buildings, but there was little in the way of any information as is often the case in the company’s other outlets. A bank of fruit machines was at the front of the bar and the white plastered ceiling included some mauve concealed lighting, but other than that there was little of any interest. Food is apparently served from 07:00 to 23:00. Beers on this occasion were Abbott Ale, Doom Bar, Conwy’s Ramparts, Ruddles Best, Ruddles Beast and Bottle Brew. Ciders on tap were Strongbow, Thatcher’s Gold, Gwynt Y Ddraig Pyder, Waddlegoose Lane Spadger and Brother’s Pear, the latter of which was apparently available with the addition of Strawberry, Wild Fruit or Toffee Apple flavours. I always considered Brothers to be one of the more traditional cider makers, so quite why they’ve gone down this gimmicky route I’m not sure. There were also several more ciders racked up behind the bar and in the ‘fridge on account of the current cider festival.