The Prince Arthur (JD Wetherspoon), Fleet

Tidy, bijou(ish) and comfy Spoons, a long old walk down the high street from the station. My arrival coincided with the first day of the beer festival so five guest casks were on the go. I tried three of them and got GBG quality beer across the board (3 x NBSS 3.5). I genuinely enjoyed this one, felt like a proper pub – WhatPub says it’s a 1998 conversion but from a shop. Either way, it works well.

Town centre Wetherspoon's with the old blue and gold livery, busy on a Saturday night with Fleet's finest. I was heavily out-tattoed and one pubgoer had his face and head covered in them. Luckily for me though, my Purple Moose Calon Lân was excellent and a surprisingly-reasonable £1.49.

This looks like it might have once been an original pub but apparently is not. It's more pub-like than some of their outlets that actually were once pubs. Inside it's a single room done out in the old school Spoons manner with an extension at the back. There are two banks of six hand pumps but the benefit of this was largely negated by the fact that the two GK beers and Loddon's Ferryman's Gold were doubled up. There was an unusual cider on sale. The remaining five beers were Exmoor Gold, Windsor & Eton Canberra, Twickenham Winter Cheer, Caledonian / Baird Rising Sun Pale Ale and Dark Star Original. I went for the Dark Star Original (£2.75) which I'm not sure was entirely right. It's currently GBG listed but to be honest I didn't even see any other pubs between here and Fleet Station.