The Thomas Frost (JD Wetherspoon), Kirkdale, Liverpool

The Thomas Frost takes up the ground floor of an old department store. Inside it's a wide rectangular room with the bar at the rear and fairly typical fixtures and fittings. There seems to be more floor space here than normal which is probably due to the proximity of two football grounds. Live satellite TV football was advertised on the bar. As far as I'm concerned this has no place in any Wetherspoon outlet so it gets marked down for that. Fortunately early on a Wednesday afternoon there was no football or football crowds. There are two sets of five hand pumps which had two available soon, the JDW Trio Of Doom with Doom Bore & Abbot doubled, Kelham Island Pale Rider, Coach House Post Horn and Red Star Formby Blonde. I went for the Pale Rider (£2.25) which wasn't clear and didn't taste right at all. This isn't a Spoons I would bother returning to.

Official site of The Thomas Frost (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Thomas Frost (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Elongated rectangular 'spoons in quite an imposing building, albeit one looking well past its best. Usual deal inside, but pleasantly light due to the large windows all along the main façade. Nothing too interesting from the two banks of five handpumps, but my pint of Moorhouse's Black Cat was only £1.79 on the Monday Club offer so can hardly complain.

This is a standard Wethers. Open plan as usual and dissimilar to a lot of Wethers. Lots of ales to chose from as you would expect. Its not the worst Wethers and its by far your best bet for real ale on the Walton Rd/County Rd strip.