The Gavel, Blackpool

This is a fairly standard Wetherspoons pub close to Blackpool South station and handy for Bloomfield Road stadium and South Pier. The pub opened back in 1999, making it Wetherspoons' first outlet on the Fylde peninsula. I'm not sure what the premises used to be (perhaps an auction house judging by the name?) but it has the feel of a typical 'Spoons shop conversion. You enter into a large single room set up with a modern, almost Lloyds Bar feel to it. The bar runs down the left hand wall, with ample seating opposite and in the front windows, pastel shaded walls and patterned carpeting throughout most of the room. There is an unusual raised fireplace on the right hand side with a stack of firewood surrounding it and some comfy looking sofas in front. The seating throughout is generally pretty smart and comfortable and the place seemed nice and clean when visiting both late on a Saturday night and early for breakfast. The room opens out a lot more once you get past the servery and there are ordered rows of standard and banquette seats all the way to the rear where doors lead out to a garden of sorts with a few benches. décor is fairly non existent, with a few old photos dotted around the room and some of the usual history boards, with most visual distraction coming from TV screens which were showing Match of the Day and the Football League Show on the Saturday night and BBC News 24 on Monday morning. The pub was fairly quiet on both my visits, but the customers that were in seemed respectable enough, although I did pass up a drink here prior to a game at Blackpool's nearby ground, favouring the quieter Dog and Partridge instead. Twelve handpulls in two banks of six can be found on the bar counter, offering four Spoons regulars, seven guest ales and one real cider with none of those annoying 'Coming Soon' clips. I tried a pint of George Wright Calypso which I thought was pretty good. The bar staff seemed like a friendly enough bunch and had some good banter with a bunch of burly hungover blokes who rocked up for their collective fry-ups on Monday morning. This really is about as formulaic as Wetherspoons pubs go, but in areas where finding decent beer is difficult, a bland 'Spoons can be a godsend. If you find yourself down this end of town in need of a drink or some cheap grub, this place would be the predictable, but ultimately best, choice.

ITS a spoons there either good or bad and this is not a good one every scroat down south shore was in un like the Dog and Partridge next door that had nice people in wont call in much

Fairly unremarkable 'spoons, but set several roads back from the beach and thus avoiding the worst of the seaside mayhem. Also surprisingly far out from the centre of town but pretty close to the South station. Most - but by no means all - of the 12 handpumps were working, and the selection of real ales was a reasonable mixture of the usual suspects and rarer offerings. My pint of the dubiously named Doff Cocker from the Three Bs Brewery was first class at £1.70, and I doubt whether you'll find a better place for a pint in this part of the town.

Busy Wetherspoons with prompt service, but I had a problem with their voucher. Only 2 beers available on the 12 handpulls, so we ordered 2 halves of Three B's Bobbins bitter. Was told they could not take voucher for 2 halves so I said to put the beer in one pint glass. She thought about it, then decided to accept for the halves after saying till would not cope with reduction on half pints. First time I have come across this in 15 months using the vouchers!

Removed 's' from the end of the name and updated the street number

Set a long way back from the High Street and right next door to the Kings Arms, you could easily overlook this one. The space at the front is firstly a small garden, then seating on a patio. Inside, the Six Bells is definitely a large pub, with room after room opening up. That's a bit of a problem as, when it's quiet, it does lack atmosphere. On my visit, though, the crowds were in, giving it a much livelier feel. A big pub is, however, a good thing when there's a band on, as you can still have a conversation round the front when the music's blasting out at the back. Beer is from Hall & Woodhouse's uninspiring range although there is a good selection of that brewers bottles, albeit at astonishing prices.

A JD Wetherspoon establishment. Correct name and address is The Auctioneer, 235-237 Lytham Road. [edit: actioned 19/10/09]