The Red Lion (JD Wetherspoon), Skegness

Not the best of Spoons. Come in the side door and the bar is on the left. Not the greatest selection of ales - only Abbot that I could drink.

Typical 'spoons conversion of a former hotel (originally the Lion in this case), with some interest retained in the façade but the 'L'-shaped interior having been given the old-style dark-wood treatment. Not much doing on the real ale front either, with the usual suspects supplemented by a few non-local beers such as Hanlons Yellow Hammer and Saltaire Blonde (£2.15) on the two banks of six handpumps.

Official site of The Red Lion (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Red Lion (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

The Red Lion is an old school Spoons and although it was originally a hotel it is very much a standard fare JDW. It's roughly an L shaped room with a step up to the right. There is a fair bit of dark wood panelling and typical JDW furnishings. On my early Saturday afternoon visit there were quite a few in considering it was January. A particularly loud and obnoxious little girl was sitting a few tables away and being ignored by her parents who seemed to have just come in for drinks. It bought back memories of the 1970s film the Exorcist and I'm sure the opening bars of Tubular Bells were playing as they left. The bar has two sets of six hand pumps which had the JDW Trio Of Doom and Black Horse Thanks PA doubled up, Batemans XXXB, a cider, Jenning's Snecklifter and Banks's Barley Brown Tumble Off. The Thanks PA was on Special Offer reduced from £2.99 to £2.15 so I went for that and it was in good nick. The standard guest ale price here was £2.49 which strikes me as expensive for a Midlands Spoons. Despite that it seemed OK although the guest beer choice may be a problem for the low ABV brigade.

Not one of the best spoons its tiered needs a refurb staff very lazy but like a lot of spoons not enough staff on was going to eat but no clean tables plenty empty one but full of glasses and plates. Had a very good pint of Batemans bitter