The Giddy Bridge (JD Wetherspoon), Southampton

A pretty-standard Spoons, a little out of town up in the London Road shops so perhaps quieter than some. There was a good selection of guest ales, including two stouts.

This is a well positioned branch of Wetherspoons close to East Park, which I felt was one of their better examples of a large shop converted premises. You enter into a fairly open plan area with the bar running along the back wall. The room has a bright patterned carpet which felt surprisingly plush underfoot, hinting at the standard of decor throughout which seemed to be slightly higher than that of your average 'Spoons. Over to the right is what constitutes the main seating area where plenty of tables and chairs have been arranged in a sizeable space that seems to taper to a point at the far end. High tables and stools have been set up closer to the bar and the whole area has been satisfyingly subdivided by various pillars and bits of partitioning wall, thereby avoiding the usual barn-like feel this type of conversion usually results in. A staircase to the left breaks up the other side of the room as well, creating a compact and almost cosy seating area behind where you can find decent fixed benches under classic 90's Wetherspoons bookcases topped with craft beer bottles. The usual 'Spoons info boards and local history snippets can be found around the tongue and groove panelled walls and the large front windows sport checked red and blue panes at the top, which looked quite nice in the bright sun. The stairs take you up to a first floor seating area offering the usual overspill space for busier periods. The pub is listed in the 2017 Good Beer Guide and had a 7:2 guest ale to 'Spoons regular ratio, which seems pretty good to me. Two more pumps sported 'Coming Soon' signs and there was a real cider on the final pull. I got my day in Southampton off to a fine start with a pint of Oakham Enough Rope which went down a treat and was accompanied by a good value panini. I was here relatively early on a match day, so the pub wasn't too busy, but the staff still seemed well organised and there were the usual doormen making sure the idiots were well marshalled. I generally find this type of shop conversion 'Spoons completely interchangeable but I thought this one broke the mould slightly and managed to create a feeling far closer to that of a regular pub than the template normally allows. The quality beer adds another brownie point whilst the proximity to the town centre and other worthy pubs makes it a good option to include on a crawl around town. A welcome surprise this one.

As noted below this is an old school shop conversion with the old style blue and gold plastic signage on the outside. It's very wide but fairly shallow inside with fairly typical furnishings. On my Tuesday afternoon visit it was a bit shambolic with a number of un-cleared tables but the lunchtime rush receding. The bar has twelve hand pumps which had the JDW Trio Of Doom, Ringwood Old Thumper, two ciders, Flack Manor Union Flack, Upham Silver Blaze, Wild Weather Big Muddy, Yeovil Star Gazer, Burton Bridge Porter and Strathaven Winter Glow. A cider with added nettles called Devil's Leaf caught my eye and I got stung for £3.05. This Spoons is GBG 2017 listed and has a better than average choice of ales but although the menu says guest ales from £2.25 they all seemed to be more expensive than that.

From the outside this a regular shop-conversion style JDW. However the downstairs looks like a traditional Spoons interior that has then been quirkified - the wood panelling glossed in duck egg, deep red and vomit yellow with little turrets on top of the booth dividers, along with a seemingly unexplained full-wall painting of some chap in tails walking along a branch of a tree (upstairs). It’s also unusual in having Southampton FC paraphernalia and a Stars and Stripes behind the bar, usually Wetherspoons are pretty tight on non-corporate stuff. Apparently there is some form of rooftop garden but I didn’t notice any signage for it. Around six guest ales and my Leeds Pale was in good nick, served by affable staff. Downside - the gents was devoid of bog paper and soap. And no tomato came out with my breakfast. Sloppy. Still, Southampton city centre is a bit barren for decent pubs so this one is a bit of a default. I would have scored it higher but for the lack of basic toilet garb.