The Friar Penketh (JD Wetherspoon), Warrington

This is set in a modern building on a corner in what seems to be Warrington's club land. I only looked at the downstairs part which is a roughly rectangular room without much depth. The bar takes up most of the far wall. It was nowhere near as busy as the Looking Glass. The ten hand pumps downstairs had four unused, Ruddles, Doom Bore, Titanic Captain Smith, Hobgoblin Gold, Maxim Maximus and Butcombe Rare Breed. I went for the Captain Smith which was excellent. Despite the average beer choice I thought this one was OK.

Above average Wetherspoons.

The Friar Penketh is an open plan Wetherspoons that is broken up by a few pillars and a staircase that leads to an upstairs seating area. The bar runs along the left hand wall where standard draught products can be purchased. I counted fifteen hand pumps that were drawing a mix of usual Spoon’s suspects and guest ales. The usual food deals are advertised throughout the pub and the prices are reasonably cheap. There was a decent sized crowd in on Saturday night and to be honest it was nice to get away from the loud thumping music that every other pub in the area seemed to be playing. I found the service to be very polite and I would recommend this place to others.

The pub stands where a 13th century Augustinian Friary once stood,with Friar Penketh being a scholal and is mentioned in Shakespeare's King Richard The Third.There was a fine array of Cask beers on,13 in fact, plus 2 available soon,but alas had to make do with a coffee as the bar had not yet opened.There is a quite smart upstairs area with a few leather setees strewn around.