The Art Picture House (Lloyds No 1), Bury

sadly another case of beautiful building, terrible pub. the layout inside is a bit of a mess, obviously set up for the late night circuit drinkers. A waste of a majestic interior. the staff were headless chickens, and this was a quiet morning. White Witch, Titanic White Star and Exeter Bitter are not the most interesting guest beers either. at least the jolly pensioners on an 11am piss up livened things up.

Official site of The Art Picture House (Lloyds No 1) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Art Picture House (Lloyds No 1) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

This is one of their better cinema conversions as inside it's clearly recognisable as one. It's very much a Lloyds with the branding still on the outside and I spotted a notice on the way in declaring a dress code and admission fee of £2.00 after 22:00 on Friday and Saturday. There's an island bar and an unused smaller keg only one where the screen once was with an idiot booth to the right of it. The old cinema circle just seems to be used for attaching speakers and lights. The bar has five hand pumps at the front and five at the rear. The front five had one unused, Stockport Summertime, Peerless Red Rocks, Titanic White Star and Abbot while the rear five had Moorhouse Blond Witch, Ruddles and three festival ciders which were in the chill cabinet. I went for a Thistly Cross festival cider which went down a treat with a breakfast. During daytime this one seemed reasonably OK for a Lloyds.

It is a decent Wetherspoons with 2 bars on ground level though as it was an afternoon only one was on. Service was pretty quick but only after the barman had twirled the glasses around a few times and started blathering on to a couple of Dearie's about the wine selection. A quick reminder that he was supposed to be serving me got him moving.

Called in on the 15th of March before getting the metro the two comments from Rex and Rob are correct but i got served straight away which is unusual for spooners.There was a beer festival going on i got a pint of plumb bitter it was good to start with but got sickly towards the end. Its a place you will call when you get off the metro or go for one