The King Johns Tavern, Hartlepool

Any resemblance to a spoons is purely coincidental, ok no it was a ‘spoons once but didn’t cut it according to locals, probably being in an out of the way location didn’t help. The decor is more than a bit ecclesiastical with stained glass, gothic screens and a choir stall fronted counter. There’s a better range of beers than in the ‘spoon’s, although some are doubled up and some are pish, there were about four decent beers on sale. Weird place Hartlepool.

Visited this Wetherspoon outlet on 19th July and enjoyed Hambleton Cascaded and Wharfe Beer Yorkshire IPA.

Corner Spoons with bar to match. Reasonable selection or real ales with a few "to follow". Not that full for a Friday but with Snecklifter @ £2.09 per pint, I wasn't caring.

The King John's Tavern is set on the SW corner of the area where the War Memorial is. I have to agree with below in that the horrible modern building has a far better interior. The L shaped room has fairly typical furnishings and a raised area to the left. Eight beers were available from the twelve hand pumps the JDW Trio Of Doom, Jenning's Clean Slate, Sonnet 43 The Raven, Mordue Radgie Gadgie, Adnam's Make It Rain and Rooster's True Grit. Abbot, Doom Bore, Radgie Gadgie and Clean Slate were doubled up. I went for the Radgie Gadgie (£1.95) which was in decent nick. This is GBG 2017 listed and probably deserves to be as it is better than many of the JDWs up this way.

I popped into this centrally located Wetherspoons pub for a quick pint and a bite to eat before heading off to watch the football at nearby Victoria Park. The pub is typical of many Wetherspoons houses, with an L shaped interior, mostly carpeted but with a mosaic tile floor around the bar area. Dark wood has been used to good effect to create an approximation of a traditional pub and there are plenty of seating options throughout with raised seating sections along the front windows and some semi partitioned booths towards the rear. Above the bar area, there is a rather dated looking backlit, stained glass ceiling feature, but otherwise the décor is standard issue ‘Spoons stuff. The clientele were a bit rough and ready, but the staff seemed like a friendly bunch and they worked hard to reduce waiting times to a minimum and keep the place clean. The building was constructed in the 1970’s and looks pretty grim from the outside, but I thought the interior was a whole lot better than I’d initially expected. There were twelve hand pumps on the bar, but the two banks of six both offered the same options. Two regulars were supplemented by Wychwood Hobgoblin, Maxim Swedish Blonde and Daleside Squarerigger. I tried the last two, both priced at £1.49, and thought they were in good shape, with the Swedish Blonde, which was recommended to me by one of the locals, turning out to be a cracking pint. It was steak night, so I gave the sirloin a try which was good value for money, as you would expect. This is far from being a great Wetherspoons, but there was something about this place that I enjoyed and made me end up staying for longer than I’d planned. Certainly worth a look in terms of beer choice and I agree with the previous reviewer that it’s the better of the town’s two ‘Spoons.