The Admiral of the Humber (JD Wetherspoon), Hull

A big modern Spoons lurking behind Mecca bingo. For some reason the lighting is minimal, which made it feel more like a basement, not helped by my personal hatred - industrial ducting. Quite a good range of beers though, with guests Batemans XXXB, Roosters Yankee, Wainwright, Portobello APA and Rudgate Chocolate Stout alongside the usual suspects. Ok for what it is.

Hull possesses two branches of Wetherspoon's (that I'm aware of). Both are in the latest Good Beer Guide, but with so many decent pubs in the city, you have to question why. This branch was packed on our Saturday evening visit, being one of the closest real ale pubs to the football stadium. After a long walk here, we were happy to finally settle down for a pint and after enduring a long queue and fairly clueless service, we managed to secure a table quite quickly. The pub is a typical 'spoon's branch with a large open-plan interior. Multiple bouncers on the door seemed fairly friendly and were doing a good job in weeding out the underage drinkers. When ordering JHB, our young barman hadn't ever heard of the beer and had to question what it was. His search for the Black Dragon cider also proved to be beyond him. The usual Wetherspoon's beers were on - Greene King Abbot, Ruddles Best & Sharp's Doom Bar. Guests were Theakston Old Peculier, Thwaite's Wainwright, Oakham JHB, Marston's Old Empire & Adnams Broadside. As mentioned, the cider was Gwynt y Ddraig Black Dragon. As mentioned previously, the building itself does not look welcoming. It is now a hotel and I'm glad we didn't choose to stay here. A pretty poor branch of Wetherspoon's, but marginally the better of the 2 we visited.

The pub looks a bit grim from the exterior shots on here, but it didn't seem bad when I visited the other day. Perhaps they have done the front up a bit and as I was on the same side of the road I would not have noticed the office windows above as the canopy would have restricted my view. At the bar, two banks of five hand pumps. There were 8 or 9 different ales split across the two pumps, including the Spoons regulars of Doom Bar, Abbot Ale and Ruddles. One was having the line cleaned but was still clipped. A TV screen near the bar lists "today's ales" and at the time of my visit these were (in addition to the standard trio) DB Four Poijt Blanc, Daleside Square Rigger, Newby Wyke Kingston Topaz, Great Newsome Ploughmans Pride and Partners Tabatha. I am sure I also spotted a pump of "Old Thumper" which was not on the board. Guest ales were all £2.15 a pint. The pub itself is quite wide and has a long bar area to the rear of the pub. Looks like it is also a hotel so perhaps the office looking windows above are now part of the hotel. Not sure if there was an upstairs seating area but there were signs about a beer garden upstairs. Unusually, toilets are downstairs! A better than average Spoons in terms of real ale at the time of my visit.

This large centrally positioned Wetherspoons pub is supposedly built on the site of the former Master Mariner Almshouse, not that you'd ever know this from the ugly building in which the pub is housed. Inside, its fairly run of the mill 'Spoons stuff, with the usual large open plan room layout with the bar along the rear wall. A strip of stone tiling cuts through the middle of the room to lead you from the entrance to the bar, with a few high tables and stools to the side and plenty of standing room around the entrance. Over to the right is a raised bare boarded area with regular tables and chairs under the front windows with square light features above and a dartboard in a case on the end wall. There is a similar space further back with a large modern art piece on display and in the far corner there are a few nooks with some further seating hidden behind a set of pillars. To the left lots more standard seating is available in a carpeted area, with high tables and stools towards the far end. There is another recessed area along the left hand wall with decent seating options beneath. The whole pub is painted in bland shades and is extremely sparsely furnished, with only a few TV screens showing a live football match (with the commentary on), providing any sort of visual distraction. Despite a fair bit of carpeting, the room was very loud and echoey which made it very difficult to settle down. I counted ten hand pumps on the bar, half of which were dispensing guest ales, with the others having three 'Spoons regulars, one 'Coming Soon' clip and one unclipped. The guests weren't particularly interesting, the best of the bunch being Lancaster Black, which I enjoyed a reasonable pint of. I also decided to grab something to eat here and the service was fairly quick whilst the food was its usual reliable if underwhelming self. This has to be one of the most dull and uninspiring Wetherspoons pubs I've ever visited, which is really saying something. The grim building gives way into an insipid interior with terrible acoustics and limited decor and whilst the furnishings are at least the usual 'Spoons standard issue, I still couldn't really get comfortable in here. The beer quality was the one saving grace but there are so many better pubs, and indeed better 'Spoons, in Hull that I can't see me bothering to return.

Official site of The Admiral of the Humber (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Admiral of the Humber (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

As noted below this is a wholly uninspiring JDW in a hideous mid 20th Century office block. The ten hand pumps had one available soon, Ruddles, Doom Bore, Great Newsome Holderness Dark & Ploughman's Pride, Caledonian Seasoned Traveller IPA, Hobgoblin, Brain's SA Gold, Milestone Lockkeeper and Wold Top Wold Gold. I found a cider from the festival I liked so stuck with that. I actually made two visits here as the kitchen was closed. Mid afternoon I went off to the William Wilberforce to get something to eat and returned later in the afternoon when the kitchen was up again. A bit later the two TV screens at the left side of the room were tuned to a football match and the volume turned up so high that it filled the entire pub. This was late July so there were no meaningful games on and a maximum of six people were showing any interest. Families had come here to eat and were being subjected to this rubbish. If it had been me I would have told them to either turn it off or give a complete refund for the food. This is the worst standard JDW I've been in so it gets the Score of Shame.