The Captain Alexander (JD Wetherspoon), Liverpool

Near James Street station and not far from the tourist attractions in the docks, this is still probably one of the better branches of Wetherspoon's in the city. The interior is not actually that big, with one large open-plan room on the ground floor and an upper level roof terrace. I find that the ground floor is far too cluttered with too many high tables and stools cramped into a small space. If you can grab one of the very few booths, you may be better off. The bar is off to the right-hand side and with some very awkwardly placed pillars, it's difficult to see what beers are on. On our Wednesday afternoon visit, the Abbot was off, but the remaining selection was Ruddles Best, Sharp's Doom Bar, Peerless Dark Nights & Langton Spin, Oakham JHB, Coach House Three Kings & Spitting Feathers Rested When Expected & Trio Brew Alien. Ciders were Weston's Old Rosie & Gwynt y Ddraig Black Dragon. One of six branches in the city centre, this is almost certainly one of the best 3, with one of the better beer ranges.

Large open-plan branch of the Wetherspoons chain just across the road from St James station. The main part of the pub is a roughly square-shaped space with exposed floorboards and an unbelievable amou8nt of almost exclusively high table and stool seating options. Normal tables and chairs can be found in the space under the large front windows, with some comfy looking banquettes in support, and cosy banquette booths can be found down the left-hand wall, so it’s worth exploring a bit in order to find a comfier seating option. To the rear, a semi-partitioned space with an open kitchen on the back wall offers a few more basic seating options. The servery lines the right-hand wall and has a nice dark wood counter and a typical ‘Spoons-style mirrored bar back. The whole room probably feels a bit like an old-school drinking barn at times, such is the open-plan nature of the layout, but there are a few pillars and posts that break the space up a bit and on a busy evening, the furniture obstacle course was enough to distract from the rather impersonal surroundings. On the bar, the standard ratio of three regular ‘Spoons ales plus three guests was present and correct and I took a pint of Purple Moose Dark Side Of The Moose, which I haven’t tried in many years and was as great as I remember it being. The staff were all pretty young, friendly and suspiciously enthusiastic on a busy Saturday evening. There are loads of Wetherspoons pubs in Liverpool and absolutely none of them stick out in my memory as being anything other than functional, so it’s only fitting that this is another such venue that fits perfectly into that category. This was fine for a quick pint, held absolutely no surprises and will be forgotten about in no time at all - a typical average ‘Spoons experience all round. Date of visit - 15th July 2023

Added this new JDW outlet to our crawl this week, and found it had Big Bog Bourbier and 3 Peerless brewery beers as guests, and we chose Langton Spin which was fine.