The Ferry Boat (JD Wetherspoon), Runcorn

Older style Spoons with basic interior. Some booths but mainly tables and chairs, with a mix of high and low. Single storey so the toilets are downstairs. Two banks of hand pulls for the real ale, including the Spoons staples plus guests, one or possibly two of which were labelled as coming soon. Service was friendly enough. Not much choice for real ale in the area from what I could see, so this Spoons definitely serves its purpose in that regard.

Unremarkable 'spoons, with an elongated L-shaped interior that benefits from a row of windows at the back to lessen the gloom. Limited selection from the two banks of three handpumps, with just Otter Ale and Mauldon's Black Adder (£1.99) available in addition to the usual trio.

The Ferry Boat is conveniently located right opposite Runcorn bus station. Inside it's a pretty dull roughly square room with the bar on the right and leading to a small patio area at the rear. It was doing a good trade on my late Saturday morning visit. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps and I asked about the price of the Jaipur displayed on one set (£3.79) only to be told that none of these five were actually on and that they just had what was on the other five hand pumps. As it was so busy I gave up on checking that out and had a bottle of Oakham Green Devil (£2.99) instead. I later discovered that the other five had one unused, the two GK beers, Titanic Captain Smith and Brain's Rev James. I didn't think this was a complete disaster but it isn't a great Spoons.