The Commercial Rooms (JD Wetherspoon), Bristol

The standard ex bank type Wetherspoons conversion with a big central U shaped bar and further rooms towards the rear. A pretty good selection of ales from the region available but this place does get busy in the evening along with the other usual chain bars surrounding it in this pedestrianised bit of old Bristol.

As others have said, this is an very impressive building with a high ceiling topped off with a glass dome surrounded by statues. The colours are a bit garish, but overall it’s a pleasant enough pub, although this was the first ‘Spoons to open in Bristol and it is starting to show it’s age a bit. There’s one very large central room, plus a smaller bar off to the rear. This is pretty nondescript and doesn’t really have much in the way of an ambience. There’s also a small rectangular room behind the bar, but it’s quite narrow and is used as a corridor for people on their way to the loos. Usual impressive selection of beers on tap, which on this occasion were Headless Huntsman, Rudgate Brewery’s Battle Axe, Ruddles Best, Yachtsman, Wickwar’s BOB, Directors, Abbot and Otter’s Head. Ciders were Old Rascal, Thatcher’s Gold, Blackthorn and Strongbow.

This is another pub where Wetherspoons have taken a fine old building and kept it in use as a pub, in this case the former Bristol Commercial Rooms, which was a meeting place for the city's merchants, since the early 1800’s. A lot of the interior has been retained being a huge high-ceilinged hall, with large portraits of the said famous wealthy merchants of Bristol decorating the walls. It’s a central island horseshoe as mentioned below bar area and then there is an additional dining area to the rear. Fairly busy on my Satuday lunchtime visit and the usual issues with service you get in a large spoons when busy and the large open plan space means it’s a noisy place for a pint, but the Bath Ale I had was perfectly fine and full marks to Wetherspoons for retaining another fine old building in use.

A stunning Wetherspoons by the historic Corn Exchange that serves up a wide variety of ales - the two I had were pretty good last visit. The interior, which once was spick-and-span, is now in serious need of some TLC. It's also started to attract some dubious punters - there was a scrap outside on a Saturday afternoon a couple of months back when I was last there - never what you want to see, especially in a big tourist area. Still worth a visit for a beer but needs stronger management to get back to where it was a couple of years back. There are a number of quality pubs nearby now which have overtaken the place.

Strange building this, the front bar had a 70's orange and yellow colour scheme a bit out of keeping with the usual JDW décor. It was only when we got to the back rooms that it felt like a Spoons, albeit a rather tired and beaten up one.

Official page of the Commercial Rooms - www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk

Official page of the Commercial Rooms - www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk

Fairly large Wetherspoon's selling a good range of real ales.Usual Wethernosh.