The Picture House (JD Wetherspoon), Ebbw Vale

Opened in 1998. Despite the horrific-looking Soviet style building in which it resides, this feels and smells like a very recent refurb and is nicely done - there's a 3D theatre stage illusion, nice decorative metal servery flyer and an upper mezzanine level. Two guest ales (it is South Wales, after all…) with my Salem being surprisingly good (NBSS 3.5) and I suppose this place works well as the only quality ale outlet in an otherwise depressed and dreary town. 6.5

If you go to the Picture House looking for signs of a cinema conversion then you'll be out of luck as it's a conversion of a Tesco that was built on the site of the old cinema. Inside it's a large open plan room with the bar on the left, an upstairs area and a patio at the rear. It all seems rather large for a town the size of Ebbw Vale but apparently JDW have plans to make it one of their hotels. There are just six hand pumps here which had the JDW Trio Of Doom, Well's Bombardier, one unused, a cider and Brain's Bread Of Heaven. This was the second time in as many days that I was cornered into drinking Bread Of Heaven (£1.99) which was in good nick. Real Ale has never really taken off in the industrial valleys of Wales so maybe it's unrealistic to expect anything other than a poor choice like this. Apart from the beer selection it seemed alright to me.