Moon in the Square (JD Wetherspoon), Bournemouth

The Moon in the Square is a vast Wetherspoons pub with a bar on each floor. Upstairs at the rear is a decked smoking area. I counted ten hand pumps on the downstairs bar and six of these were drawing guest beers. The usual draught and cheap food is available and I found the service to be very friendly. I wouldn’t rush back here as the size means that there is little atmosphere, but it is handy for large groups to meet before hitting the town.

This is a very large Wetherspoons pub situated in an old department store right in the middle of Bournemouth town centre. The ground floor is split over several levels, with the bar on the left hand side. In front of the bar there is a decent amount of space for vertical drinking, which is invariably needed on Friday and Saturday nights in particular as the place gets absolutely packed. There is plenty of seating in this area as well and a raised area at the back of the room has even more tables and is generally the spot that people use when eating. There's even more seating in a lower section near the front door and this area was packed full of people watching the cup final when I arrived on a recent Saturday afternoon. Several other screens throughout the pub were also showing the match. Upstairs there is another bar, again with lots of standing room and split levels with additional seating including a small outdoor patio, which was always a prized spot to grab a table when I used to drink here in the late 90's. The decor is typical Spoons stuff although there is a nice coloured glass feature on the ceiling on the ground floor, possibly inherited from the store conversion, and they have also worked in the moon motif from the pub's sign into some of the woodwork, which at the very least, provides some sort of distinguishing feature. There are ten handpulls downstairs and another five upstairs, with a fair few taken up by Spoons regulars such as Abbot Ale and Ruddles, but I would say that this is the best Bournemouth Spoons in terms of guest ale selection. I tried something from the Cottage brewery, which was in decent condition and served to me in relatively quick time by the notoriously slow bar staff. I have a bit of a soft spot for this pub as it used to be our first port of call on many a memorable night out in town, but in isolation, this is essentially another drinking barn style establishment in a town packed full of such places. The decent beer range and relatively pleasant environment on quieter days make this a worthwhile option but in the grand scheme of things, it's nothing you haven't seen before.

As the name implies, this large 2 floor Wetherspoons is centrally located on the main town Square. There seems to be an above average number of ‘Spoons in town and this would appear to be the flagship of the bunch. It is for the most part a very formulaic and typically representative ‘Spoons that occupies what looks appears to have originally been 3 former buildings. The mainly glass frontage opens up continental style onto the square although the light doesn’t really penetrate into the rear sections and the lowish ceilings make it appear a bit more cramped and claustrophobic than it probably is. There were 10 hand pumps in the main bar with a good selection of Festival ales and the upper floor also has its own self contained bar with a further 5 hand pumps that had a couple of different ales to the ground floor so it’s worth checking out. To the rear of the upstairs bar there is a decent size outdoor patio which is worth knowing as it isn’t obvious from the ground floor. Theer are several interesting old photos of town dotted about that give a good impression of how Bournemouth has evolved from a relatively sleepy localized town to the major holiday resort it has now become. Service was OK but the place was very busy for my mid Friday afternoon visit with a high customer turnover and they weren’t particularly quick to clear tables. There was a good mix of holidaymakers, local workers and retired folk but I would imagine this gives way to a younger crowd in the evenings. The place is perfectly adequate for what it is (and you know exactly what you get witrh ‘Spoons) but it does have a bit of a seen one seen ‘em all feel to it.