The Ivy Tree, Romford

I visited this pub today and this is the first ever Lloyds No 1 I have been in so I was keen to see what the differences were between this and your average JDW such as the Moon and Stars a few doors away. The decor is a bit more modern and there weren't quite so many extras from Last of the Summer Wine and Shameless, the beer festival was on and it was all £1.99 a pint. The only difference I could detect was that they have background music playing, something I personally prefer to a TV screen with no sound showing a news channel. The Australian Feral IPA was in excellent condition and on the day I preferred this pub to the GBG listed one nearby. I would add that I was here early afternoon and I dread to think what this area is like on a Friday or Saturday evening as the JDW and Lloyds appear to be part of a town centre group of pubs that I would guess make Friday and Saturday nights here a totl nightmare. I witnessed a sign entering Romford describing it as a Historic Market Town. Please, what is this all about? It's a Chav ridden dump of a town, totally devoid of any character, dominated by the motor vehicle and hideous shopping complexes with their attached car parks. All the other pubs I passed on the bus looked like the usual pubco rubbish, Sky Sports, Karaoke, live enterteainment etc etc. At least the two adjacent Spoons have some decent beer.

This place has ten hand pumps and I counted at least three guest beers along with a cider. The usual standard draught products are also available at very reasonable prices and I was served a decent pint of Guinness by a proficient barman. Being a JDW there are obviously drink deals to be had and there are promotions on already cheap food. I spotted three plasma screens that were tuned into a music channel, but the volume was very low. There is also a DJ booth and dance floor which were not being used as my visit was on a weekday afternoon. As Wetherspoons pubs go this one is pretty good.