The Narrows (JD Wetherspoon), Abingdon

The Narrows is a very long and thin L-shaped Wetherspoons with high tables at the front before steps midway along that lead up to standard tables and chairs. Some stairs at the front wrap around an old red telephone box, but I didn’t venture up. The bar along the front right wall supports standard and premium keg as well as two banks of five handpumps. All the usual suspects were available alongside Theakston’s Old Peculiar and Prescott’s Hill Climb.

This centrally positioned branch of the Wetherspoons chain has a fairly modest facade that gives way to a deceptively large pub in a long, but somewhat narrow, building. You enter into a front seating area in a space that feels like a typical High Street ‘Spoons, with the usual carpeting, decor and furniture. The servery runs down the right-hand wall and as usual, there is a row of high tables and stools opposite, with basic tables and chairs beyond, finally giving way to a bare boarded rear room with a very large pillar in the middle, an ugly eye-level fireplace to the right and an open kitchen at the rear. A few smaller tables fill this area, including some that run down a narrow strip to the rear left, whilst over to the right, a door leads out to a beer garden, which I didn’t explore on a cold Winter’s evening. The pub is apparently a former post office, and much of the decor throughout reflects its former use, including some old black and white photos, a bunch of framed letters and postcards and at least one stamp collection. There are also quite a few bits and bobs dotted around that imply the building may have once been the town’s telephone exchange, including old photos of the switchboard operators and perhaps most tellingly of all, a doorless red phone box in the front seating area, now put to use as a fancy display cabinet. Two banks of handpulls had the three ‘Spoons regular ales available alongside five guest beers, from which I opted for a pint of the local White Horse Runner - a pleasant enough pint in acceptable condition. We ordered our food and drinks from the app and found the service to be prompt and friendly, with the grub of the usual cheap and cheerful variety. Our visit was early evening on New Years Eve and there was a decent crowd in, mainly of younger drinkers and diners. This is a pretty standard branch of the ubiquitous chain that had it’s good and bad points, the front space is a bit ‘seen it all before’, whilst the rear area lacked a bit of character and felt like an afterthought. The decent ale selection, good service and quirky decor linked to the building’s history compensated for this to a degree and the pub would make a solid, if unspectacular, addition to any crawl around Abingdon.

This branch of Wetherspoon's is located in the former Post Office. It's quite a spacious place with steps which lead up to the kitchens and seating which goes back a long way. I chose to sit near the bar. Toilets were advertised as being upstairs. So, I assumed they were at the rear. But I could only find the disabled toilet. I'd missed the main stairs near the front. The gents themselves have red urinals and red cubicles in the style of telephone boxes. The usual Wetherspoon's beers were on offer - Greene King Abbot, Ruddles Best & Sharp's Doom Bar, in addition to 3 guests - White Horse Village Idiot, Shepherd Neame Spitfire & Box Steam Soul Train. Ciders were Weston's Old Rosie & Gwynt y Ddraig Black Dragon. As usual, my attempts to use the 'spoon's app were futile and I ended up having to attract the attention of one of the friendly members of staff, who duly took my order. A bright and welcoming pub that is better than the average branch from this chain.

Not a bad Spoons this and the breakfast was pretty good. Orkney Red McGregor, JW Lees True Faith and North Cotswold Shagweaver alongside the regulars. Happy to call in again.

Feels like a fairly new Spoons and the front of the place isn’t the usual JDW look. Long and narrow (ha ha!) with the front part cleverly split in half by a wood block partition which helped dampen noise. There’s a raised rear area which goes off at an angle. We liked the Blockbusters bar front, made up of hexagonal tiling – give us a beer please Bob! Unusual toilets, with telephone box wallpaper and red plastic urinals which is presumably a nod to the building’s previous role as a telephone exchange. Ten pumps at the bar; once the doubling-up and Spoons stagers were stripped-out we were left with three proper guest ales. My Cotswold Mild was in good nick. A decent all-rounder of a Wetherspoons.

This Spoons has been open for three years and like many of their more recent outlets is a bit different. It's set in the town's Post Office which included a sorting office and telephone exchange. There is and old red phone box at the front of the pub and the rooms upstairs that include the toilets have door knockers on them. I must admit I was tempted to return to my childhood and knock on one of the doors marked "Private" then do a runner but I seem to have finally got over doing that. The pub consists of a long narrow room, wider at the front where the PO counter would have been. Unusually the only carpeted part is on the far left as you enter with the rest having wooden floors and tiles around the bar area. The furnishings are more mixed than most Spoons with a few comfy chairs and sofas. There is a patio along the left and a small yard by the kitchen on the right that is covered in pigeon netting. It was the Abingdon carnival on my visit so a lot of the town was closed to traffic and one of the pubs I tried to visit had closed for the two days for a lick of paint. The carnival was only in full swing later in the day when I left so the pub may have been quieter than normal. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps which had the JDW Trio Of Doom, London Pride, Broadside, one Available Soon, Loddon Bamboozle, Everard's Afro-Caribbean Hopsession, Hook Norton Hookey Mild and Prescott Hill Climb. I tried the Bamboozle and the Everard's one that tasted like Tiger to me. Both were a very reasonable £2.15. I thought this was quite a good Spoons.