The Hope & Champion (JD Wetherspoon), Beaconsfield

I arrived at Beaconsfield Services on the X74 bus from High Wycombe amd had to endure a very dull walk in the rain through the petrol station, lorry park, coach park and car park. I was fully expecting this Spoons to be something of a nightmare but ended up being pleasantly surprised. Inside it's just like one of those modern office block Spoons but as it's fairly new the fixtures and fittings are a bit better than older outlets. The bar has five hand pumps which had no doubling up and four beers from local breweries. The duff one was the nefarious Doom Bore and the locale beers were Rebellion IPA & Blond plus Windsor & Eton Guardsman and Conqueror. I went for the Guardsman but it was right at the end of the cask so I tried the Conqueror (£2.50) which was in excellent condition. I suspect the food prices are dearer here than most Spoons as the £2.99 breakfast was advertised at £3.79 and the 99p standard coffee £1.29. I've always found the food at motorway services to be expensive and pretty awful, so whatever ones opinion of the standardised Spoons food offering it has to be an improvement. As somewhere to go for a drink I would rate it at 5 but that isn't really the purpose of it. As somewhere to stop on the M40 I would rate it at 9. It's a shame that the close proximity to London makes it a less convenient place to stop if travelling to or from there.

The transient nature of the Hope and Champion clientele gives this pub an airport bar atmosphere, as stated by Steve below. I still found it to be better than the melee next door in the service station proper. I thought the interior was smaller than I had imagined from the outside, although I did not venture upstairs. The interior décor, food and drinks are much as one would expect from this chain of pubs. I counted five hand pumps on the left hand bar in amongst usual draught suspects. There is some outside seating that faces the huge car park which is cold during the winter and polluted during the summer. Does the Hope and Champion pub improve the Beaconsfield Services experience? Probably.