The Bell Hotel (JD Wetherspoon), Norwich

A seemingly very small ‘spoons, about the size of an average pub. 5 pulls, 4 T-bars including 1 for wine. Lots of wood panelling and laminate flooring, there is a small piece of carpet surrounding a central island. This also houses the machines. Decorated with old photos of the city. Toilets to the left of the counter and not a full blown expedition away. There’s an almost entirely separate pub upstairs as well, a much larger area and split into a number of spaces. It has similar beers and tap layout to downstairs. Furnished with mostly high tables and stools in front and tables and chairs in the tucked away room at the side and in the seating well by the main door. Finding the toilets is a puzzle. It’s decorated with the more usual old photos and local history info boards. The front ground floor of the old hotel building is occupied by a Santander bank.

The Bell is a sprawling split-level Wetherspoons with street-level seating at the entrance that is looked over by, what I would assume to be, a life sized statue of Quasimodo holding a rope that disappears into the ceiling. Adjacent are some steps that lead up to the bar area where a serving counter runs along the rear wall facing high tables and standing room. Up the right-hand side of the counter access can be gained to the toilets and a large sunken seating area to the right that was being used mainly by diners. The JDW food menu is in operation and there was a steady stream of waitresses back and forth from the kitchen hatch on the front wall opposite the bar counter. Amongst the standard and premium keg are two banks of six hand pumps that were drawing GK Abbot Ale, Ruddles, Sharp’s Doom Bar, Green Jack Brewery’s Lurcher Stout, Saltaire’s Cascade, Arkell’s Kingsdown, JW Lees Gold, Adnams Ghost Ship and Wolf Brewery’s St George’s Ale. The service was polite, and I thought this was the better of the Spoons in the city.

A large and very rambling Spoons, built on the side of a hill so on two levels with their own entrances. Downstairs is a stereotypical Spoons morning drinkers' bar, while upstairs feels a bit more salubrious and has lots of side areas branching off so it is not difficult to find a quite corner away from the throng. Quite a good beer selection too, with local ales from Wolf and Green Jack (does Adnams count?) and others from Saltaire, Arkells and Lees as well as the usual. Quite acceptable.