The Berkeley, Wigan

Fairly quiet on our Monday eve visit, which gave us full view of just how large the interior of this pub actually is. Our train was running late, so this visit was quite handy. There were six ales on, so we went for the Weetwood Brewery Oasthouse Gold, which was in great shape.

Good looking pub that is much bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. There's a sunken area to the rear, a raised area and a massive clock. TV screens all over the place which were mainly showing Racing UK during my visit. PSM describes the pub well in his review. A decent range of ale, if not particularly inventive, with most of the beer coming from national brewers, but my pint was well kept. This pub is in the CAMRA GBG2013 and is worth a visit when in Wigan.

This is a large High Street pub that looks like it’s part of a national chain, but I couldn’t spot any branding anywhere, so maybe I’m mistaken. Even so, it still has that air of ‘drinking barn’ about it, especially when packed with a pre-football crowd, as it was on my Saturday lunchtime visit. You enter into a broad front section with loads of seating options in all directions across a huge open space broken up only by a few support pillars. An enormous screen on the front wall was showing the day’s early FA Cup tie and most of the customers were turned round to watch it. Halfway into the room you reach the L shaped servery, to the side of which there are some fancy, high backed banquettes, with loads more seating available towards the rear of the room, across a split level section. The walls are decorated with lots of black and white photos of Wigan Athletic and Rugby League players, but other than that, there is a fairly formulaic look, with half paneled walls, pastel coloured paintwork and diamond print wallpaper. They have a cheap menu and there were loads of drinks promotions (e.g. Fosters, Strongbow and John Smith’s for £1.75 from Monday – Thursday), which makes you wonder what sort of a state the place ends up in midweek. A big redeeming feature though is the ale selection, which on my visit comprised Courage Best, Wells Bombardier, Wadworth 6X, Moorhouse Witches Brew and Adnams Shingle Shells (£2.50), as well as Thatcher’s Heritage Cider. The Adnams was in good condition and ended up being one of the best beers of a long day drinking in Wigan. This place is lacking a bit in character but it is certainly a good option to have in the town centre. The beer range and quality makes it worth a look, as do the cheap prices and I’m glad I made this a late addition to my crawl.

Visited yesterday and again today. Prospect Nutty Slack, Allgates Twitter & Busted, Holts Two Hoots and Batemans Hooker. All good.