The Brocket Arms (JD Wetherspoon), Wigan

This is one of the original JDW hotels so has a reasonable number of rooms compared to some of the recent conversions of existing pubs where they have created just a small number of rooms. I actually stayed here and it cost £44.00, booked well in advance. It was OK but the room was rather cramped compared to the older and a bit run down hotel I stayed at in Lancaster the next night. One of the advantages though is the cheap breakfasts and unlimited coffees (and beer if you feel like it that early!) the following morning. I arrived on a fairly wild November night and by the time I got down to the bar it was getting on for 22:00 by which time most of the folk here for the Curry Club had dispersed. As noted below it's set in suburbia to the North of Wigan which for a Spoons is the middle of nowhere. Inside it's a large room that winds it's way around the central bar with the odd small area partially separated. One thing I did notice is that there is a proper decent looking darts area at one end. This is unusual for a Spoons as most dart boards found are more for decoration. The bar has two sets of hand pumps, one with six and one with five. Abbot and B&T SOS were doubled up then there was Ruddles, Doom Bore, Everard's Inbetween, Rudgate Battle Axe, Hawkshead Red and Saltaire Pride & Blackberry Cascade. I went for the Hawkshead Red and the Saltaire Blackberry Cascade (£2.35) both of which were in excellent condition. I thought this was a good Spoons, albeit a bit expensive for a suburban one but it is more comfortable than most. It is a bit of a trek from the City Centre but the Stations are on the South side of it and two of Wigan's four micropubs are in the Northern suburbs not far from here. It is also possible to get a bus out to the area.

This is a huge 1950’s purpose built pub and hotel to the North of Wigan town centre, roughly a 20 minute uphill walk from the train stations and handy for the pleasant Mesnes Park. The pub may well have been a thing of great beauty in the past for all I know, but today it is operated by the Wetherspoons chain and any character or points of interest it may once have enjoyed were entirely missing on my recent visit. The pub runs in an elongated reverse C shape, with long rooms to the front and rear of the servery, connected by a further space to the right. The bar can be accessed to the front and right only, although on arrival, the front half of the servery was unoccupied, forcing most customers to wend their way further into the pub. The front seating area is split into two distinct sections either side of the entrance, with lots of tables and chairs under the large front windows and a fair bit of partitioning to allow a degree of privacy. A small nook in the right hand part of the room has a few small tables and a nice painting and black and white photos on show, but most of the space here is for vertical drinking and bar access. Moving to the rear, there is a long room, split in two by a substantial section of partitioning wall, with half panelled walls and frosted windows partially obscured by heavy drapes. Booths run under the windows and formal rows of standard tables and chairs run down the middle of the room. A few more interesting black and white photos of the local area can be viewed and muted TV screens showed the usual rolling news channels. At the far end of this room there is a nice raised section with comfortable seating options and a large fireplace. Pictures on show here seem to focus on the old Wigan colliery and are well worth a quick browse. Doors lead to a couple of function rooms, with hotel access at the opposite end of the pub. The handpulls are split between the two halves of the bar, so you’ll need to walk the length of the servery to check them all out. I counted four ‘Spoons regulars and a satisfying seven guest ales, from which I tried a pint of Peerless Hilbre Gold (£2.30). Unfortunately I was subjected to some of the most comically inefficient service I’ve ever encountered in a pub, being passed over by the barmen on several occasions, despite there never being more than three or four other customers at the bar at any given time, and then eventually having my pint partly poured and being told to wait for it to settle, only for the barman to vanish leaving it half filled on the counter! The pint, when it eventually arrived, was pretty average, but went down well enough thanks to the anticipation. I was quite keen to tick this Good Beer Guide regular off my list, but found the sloppy service and dull interior to be a real put-off. It may well have a good guest ale range, but this is not enough to convince me it’s worth walking out here again and would suggest this place is left to the locals and hotel residents, as Wigan town centre has many far better pubs.

The best Wetherspoons pub I have ever been in. Good clientele, good food and cheap drinks. Tv screens and pleasant external drinking area. Also has a hotel attached.