The Fall Well (Lloyds No.1), Liverpool

The Fall Well is a Lloyds No. 1 located on the edge of St John’s Shopping Centre opposite a line of bus stops, so it wasn’t surprising to find a transient crowd in attendance. Across the front of the pub is lots of café seating, all of which was being used during a recent sunny Monday afternoon visit. Carpet runs throughout the long thin interior and laminate is found around the long serving counter that runs across the rear wall to the left where it faces a row of high tables. To the right is some open plan seating. I counted eight hand pumps that were drawing the usual three plus Jaipur, Wily Fox Brewery’s Dark Flagon, Spitting Feather’s mouth.hand.hops, Mad Squirrel Brewery’s Unity and Cockeyed Cider’s Monkey Mango. The service was polite, and the ale was cheap and in good condition, but there was no atmosphere, so I’ll probably walk past next time I’m in the area.

Official site of The Fall Well (Lloyds No.1) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Fall Well (Lloyds No.1) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

It has to be said that the Fall Well is probably the most depressing of the Liverpool city centre Wetherspoon's branches. Located on a slope underneath a shopping centre, there's very little natural light. Although if you can bag one of the tables next to the windows, there are some interesting characters to watch pass by. Service here can be a bit indifferent. There never appears to be enough staff. Our Tuesday morning visit was no different with one barmaid doing a good job trying to get everybody served whilst others including the manager were dealing with food. Unfortunately one of those orderly queues which you can so often see in branches of Wetherspoon's had formed. Luckily most people were placing food orders, but some did place some large drinks orders. Either way, with such a lengthy bar, there is no need to form queues. Regular beers are Greene King Abbot, Ruddles Best & Sharp's Doom Bar. Guests were Peerless Full Whack & Rakau & Bowman Black Drop. The boxed cider in the fridge was Gwynt y Ddraig Black Dragon.

After abandoning our plan of paying a visit to the Welkin, we stumbled across the Fall Well on Sunday. Apparently a Lloyds No 1 but just felt like a big old fashioned standard Spoons on Sunday afternoon. Being a big place, we had no issue finding a table. There were seven hand pulls at the bar for real ale - in fact it looked like there should have been eight but one had been dismantled / partially removed. I can't remember all the guest ales but the two I had were Trawlerboys by Green Jack Brewing Company and Maharaja IPA by West Berkshire Brewery, and both were perfectly reasonable and in fine condition. We did order food but we forgot to order two meals - entirely our fault - but the server didn't read our order back to us or issue us with a receipt, either or both or which would have made us realise sooner we had made a terrible mistake! Overall it's a bit of a gloomy dimly lit place and probably not the best Wetherspoon pub in Liverpool city centre, but it served its purpose and I have no real complaints. Despite there being a plethora of available seating, one chap decided to sit on the table uncomfortably close to ours and attempted to engage in discussions relating to the news of the day and sharing his UKIP beliefs while bemoaning the inequality of who the right of "free speech" applies to. I can't help thinking there would have been other people in the pub slightly more receptive to his conversation, however it made for a classic Spoons encounter!

a dowdy and pretty rough and ready Spoons in an ugly building in an ugly part of the city. I guess it serves a purpose and it's full of characters from 8am onwards.

This is an uninspiring Spoons that consists of a long narrow room with a low ceiling. It is also a Lloyds No. 1 but on my morning visit had no had no signs of that nonsense. There was an old Irish fellow who clearly has ambitions to be a Maitre D for Wetherspoons as he insisted on meeting and greeting everyone (including myself) interspersed with "singing" various songs that I didn't recognise. The room has all the usual Spoons furnishings and there is a long bar along the right side after you enter. For some reason there are three banks of hand pumps with three at the furthest ends and two in the middle. These had one unused, the two GK beers, Doom Bore, Moorhouse Pendle Witches Brew & Blond Witch, Brightside Underworld and Everard's International Indian Red Ale. I spotted a festival cider that I hadn't tried Purbeck Dorset Dabinet (£2.70) and went for that. Unlike London JDWs this was 40p dearer than the standard guest price rather than the same price. As the only cellar skills here are placing a polypin in a cardboard box into a cold cabinet I can't make any judgement on quality. Remarkably this place was busier than the opulent new North Western only a short walk away and despite having the same prices. This isn't one I would bother returning to.