The Sir Daniel Arms (Lloyds No 1), Swindon

Located in a part of town which is mostly derelict looking is this modern Spoons. Once inside there are two levels. Looks like they may have a DJ on here at some point as there was some decks. There is a few tables outside and even a balcony. Prefered the other Spoons in the town centre to this one.

A good-sized Wetherspoon’s pub split across two floors, it looks somewhat more salubrious than many of the nearby premises in this part of the town centre, with many of the others verging on derelict and clearly no longer open. It looks to be a relatively new build, and has quite a striking design with an octagonal tower built in to one corner. Internally it seems quite tidy and up-together too, and was reasonably busy on our mid-week afternoon visit. The downstairs room is all open plan, although with some small sections of wall that had been clad with wood panelling to break up the space somewhat. Flooring was a mixture of sanded wooden boards and red patterned carpet, whilst there was further dark wood panelling on much of the walls, including some built in book shelves at one end giving it an almost elegant feel perhaps, although the fruit machines and air conditioning ducting on the ceiling provided something of a contrast. A small dance floor was off to one side complete with glitter ball and lighting rigs, although the space had been filled with more tables, so perhaps it is no loner used as such. Upstairs was broadly similar in terms of style with some wooden and glazed partitioning to segregate different areas, and both floors had a long bar counter along the back wall. Beers on tap were Ruddles Best, Doom Bar, Abbott Ale, Stonehenge Rudolph, Daleside Santa’s Progress and Frome Brewing’s Bobbled Amber. Ciders meanwhile were Stowford Press, Thatcher’s Gold, Old Rosie, Thatcher’s Haze, Strongbow Dark Fruit and Kopparberg Strawberry & Lime. Overall, whilst I’m not really a massive fan of Wetherspoon’s, this one seemed decent enough and certainly looked more appealing than many of the other options in the immediate vicinity.

I agree with the previous reviewer that this is a rather disappointing Wetherspoon's, the worst of the 4 (I believe there are now only 3 left) I have visited in Swindon. Situated on a street corner, there are a handful of tables outside on the street. Indoors is spread over two levels, with the upstairs room seemingly open on this visit. Toilets are upstairs (30 steps!) too. We sat on a table on the dancefloor underneath a glitterball, but there was no sign of any dancing on our Saturday morning visit. We managed to order through table service, but the real ale choice was fairly uninspiring and the ale itself was of questionable quality. The usual Greene King Abbot & Ruddles Best were on, alongside Sharp's Doom Bar, Portobello Star, Redemption Urban Dusk & Coach House Cheshire Oaks. Real cider is no more.

A very disappointing Spoon's, in a strikingly large modern building but it does not feel like it inside, which is rather enclosed and gloomy. It is never good to be greeted by uncleared tables and then find a large queue at the bar. It is worse to find a boring selection of ales (IPA, Abbot, Doom Bar and Black Sheep) with only the latter on and in barely drinkable form. There is by the way an upstairs area which looked at though it might have an outside, but this was all shut off. A strong and unfavourable contrast to the other Wetherspoon's in the town or the Yates down the road.

This is a full blown Lloyds which was converted from a nightclub in 2007. Inside it's a smallish room with lighting rig and an upstairs that I didn't visit. Although the decor is fairly modern it has fairly typical furnishings. The beer choice was poor with only four available from the six hand pumps. These were GK IPA & Abbot, Doom Bore and JW Lees Kaleidoscope. I had the Abbot (£2.49) which was in good nick. I thought this was a poor Spoons as are many Lloyds outlets.