The White Swan (JD Wetherspoon), N1

A rather bland and featurless spoons,a rather spartan interior apart from some booth seating along one wall, the rest was a normal canteen style layout, Iwas going to say it all appeared a bit sterile, but that would have been untrue looking at some of the uncleaned tables, getting served in order was a hit or miss affair although the bar wasn't overly busy.Ten hand pumps with only six, not particularly inpiring beers were available,Abbot,Adnams Broadside,Trumans Runner,Doombar,Hackney New Zealand Pale Ale and an International beer I didn,t note the name of, the Hackney beer which cost me £3.45 was lacking in character. One note of interest was a blackboard informing us 1117 Real ales were sold last week along with 530 Craft beers and 304 hot drinks,no mention of normal keg stuff which I imagine would dwarf those figures,as a quick glance around the other 30 or so people sharing the room were all drinking Lager or Guinness as far as I could see leaving me as the only Real Ale statistic at that time.I only came in here to kill half an hour before my targeted pubs opened,I won't make the same mistake twice.

This seemed to be as standard a 'spoons as you can get. I didn't get the round in here so can't comment on the beer prices, but the staple traditional breakfast was £3.49, which is a bit more expensive than the 'spoons I regularly use in Raynes Park and Kingston. It's still good value at £3.49 though. The front of the main room is furnished with tall tables/tall stools, with a large area at the back crammed with standard tables and chairs. All quite usual for a 'spoons. This one's main plus point is its proximity to Highbury & Islington station.

2 floor spoons that does what it says on the tin.

The ‘handy for Highbury & Islington tube’ JDW, housed in a building of little note. Inside is fairly well decorated (if perhaps a little brown and orange heavy) and has a mezzanine level. Some interesting wavy wood-block finishing on the bar front and mezzanine protrusion. Clean and tidy, despite having presumably seen heavy trade throughout the Saturday. My haziness by this point meant I accidentally ended up with a super-strong US collaboration ale that JDW are currently pushing (Stone, I think) which was rather tasty, in fairness. As far as Spoons go I quite liked this place and wouldn’t be averse to a revisit.

A fairly large and bright Wetherspoon's but as on most of my previous visits not a great selection of guest beers despite it being the London Ale Festival.

Just round the corner from Highbury and Islington tube station, this is a sizeable Wetherspoons pub sited in an unattractive 1960’s building. The pub is decorated in a distinctive fashion which sets it apart somewhat from other pubs in this chain. You enter into a glass fronted area, under a neon pub sign, and find yourself in a vast carpeted room with a small tiled floor seating area on the right hand side. Further into the room, the bar runs down the right hand wall with high tables and stools opposite and some TV screens over the servery canopy showing a Europa League match with the commentary audible. Towards the rear, the room widens slightly and is filled with standard table and chair arrangements, plus a few booths separated by glass partitioning screens which bear the pub’s name. The whole pub has been decorated with an unusual wooden tile pattern, which wends its way throughout the room in a wavy layout. As others have mentioned, there is a nice mezzanine level which gives a good view down into the main part of the room. I counted ten hand pumps, but was a bit disappointed to find five ‘Spoons regulars, one ‘Coming Soon’ clip, one unclipped pump and one ale, Summerskills Tamar, which had just gone off. This left just the two guest ales, of which I tried a disappointing pint of Titanic Captain Smiths, although I was a little surprised to find that the Abbot Ale, which a friend accidentally bought me, was in very good nick. I didn’t really warm to this pub, although I got the impression that I wasn’t seeing it at its best. It’s a fairly average ‘Spoons experience, despite the quirky styling, but I’d probably give it another look thanks to its convenient location next to the tube station.