The Great Central (JD Wetherspoon), Manchester

Standard-issue 'spoons in a modern building, with having plenty of window space on two sides being the only real feature to note. Five real ales available from the two banks of three handpumps: Greene King IPA, Abbot, Acorn Malthouse (£1.99) and a pair from Saltaire - Best and Unity.

A fairly bland Wethers. A single square room with the bar to your right. 6 handpumps only in two banks of three. Trooper, Lytham Stout, Phoenix Double Gold, Doom Bore, Abbot and a cider on today. Like the review below I found this to be a fairly benign pub, but then again I was in on a very wet Wednesday afternoon. The Friendship Inn over the road is much better.

This is named after the former railway line that once ran through the area from London Marylebone to Manchester London Road (now Piccadilly). The old Fallowfield Station is across the road. Although it says on What Pub that it's a Lloyds it hasn't been for years. It's a roughly square room set on the ground floor of a modern building. The fixtures and fitting are all fairly typical. I seem to recall this one appearing on a list of the roughest Spoons but it all seemed innocuous to me. On my Thursday afternoon visit there seemed to be mostly student types present who hardly looked as though they were about to all kick off. There are only six hand pumps here which had the two GK beers, Lytham Lancashire Life Anniversary, Arundel Stronghold and Phoenix Wobbly Bob. I went for the Wobbly Bob (£3.09) which was in good nick if a bit expensive. I thought this one was OK. Only six hand pumps was disappointing but at least they were all genuinely used.

Official site of The Great Central (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Great Central (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com