Montgomery's Tower (Lloyds No 1), Shrewsbury

This place looked like a real abomination from the outside but was OK inside. On my Wednesday evening visit I got a beer from the lighter area and settled in the dark area. I use these terms as I entered this place via the back door so left and right just confuse the issue. The main light bar has two sets of five hand pumps and the darker side bar has seven. There are duplicate beers but this is the sum total as I saw it, two ciders, GK IPA (£1.65), Salopian Dead Drop had gone off, Woods Shropshire Lad and Sheer Folly, Milestone Classic Dark Mild, Elgood's Cambridge IPA and Purity UBU. I went for the Wood's Sheer Folly (£2.35) which was in fine condition. They had muzak playing and while I was sitting in the darker area a barmaid started stacking tables and chairs, presumably indicating that all hell was going to be unleashed later on. I have to say I preferred the more traditional one over the road to this place but they had a better beer selection here.

This spacious Lloyd’s Bar, which opened back in 2008 in a former bar/nightclub, has a two bar layout which, rather unusually for a Wetherspoons, provides two very different drinking areas. As you enter through the main front doors, you find yourself in a bit of a no man’s land, with bars just about visible to left and right. The left hand side of the pub has large windows along the front and back walls, making it very light in the daytime and as such, this side was by far the most popular on my Sunday afternoon visit. Fabric tub chairs and sofas are arranged across a split level space which uses some large book cases as partitioning, in order to effectively break up what is otherwise a large open space. A rear door here leads out to a small patio area. The right hand side of the pub was, by contrast, very dark thanks to minimal windows and a mix of dark paintwork and wallpaper throughout. The servery is on the rear wall and has a small raised platform to the left of it with a few seats in a rather pleasant little corner. Opposite the bar there are high tables and stools which make way for a lot of tub chairs and sofas, whilst standard tables and chairs fill up the front section of the room, creating a good mix of seating options as you might expect. There is a DJ booth at one end of the room, which suggests this side of the pub gets a bit livelier in the evenings, whilst music played in the background over some muted TV screens showing rolling news coverage. I lost count of the number of hand pumps between the two bars, but there were at least five or six guest ales available from the recent ‘Spoons festival. I tried the American Amber from one of the guest overseas brewers and thought it was in good shape. This is a good example of a Lloyd’s Bar and although there’s not much of interest beyond the beer, it was at least nice and tidy and a comfortable spot to relax over a pint. With so many excellent pubs around Shrewsbury, I’m not sure this merits more than a passing visit, but at least I got as far as ordering a pint here, which is more than can be said for the woeful other Wetherspoons just down the road.

This is a very well run Lloyds and is well worth a look in. Seven ales on offer on our visit, went for the Woods Parish Bitter. Well staffed with good service. Slightly posher than your regular Spoons

A large modern Lloyds No1 in a Deco style building. There are two counters at different ends of the building, only the left hand end was open on my lunchtime visit. The furniture is a mix of high and normal height tables and chairs. The right hand end has 7 pulls with the usual plus a number of local micros and the usual keggy stuff on a couple of T Bars. I had three members of staff trying to serve me which must been a first but the tables were cleared quick and nobody waited too long. The beer was cold even by JDW standards but once it warmed up the quality was fine. Week day trade was a number of young mums, pensioners and local six formers, although I hasten to add IDs were being checked. There are another two sets of five pulls in the other bar and the toilets are upstairs. All in all it’s pretty well run and the beer’s OK.

Very good choice and quality of ales