The Red Lion (JD Wetherspoon), Doncaster

The Red Lion is a Wetherspoons’ pub with the usual cheap prices including drink and meal deals. What I took to be a Northern roast dinner of half a roast chicken, peas, chips and gravy was the deal of the day for £3.99 on my recent Saturday afternoon visit. Standard draught products are available and I counted eight hand pumps that were spread around the bar. To the right of the entrance is a raised seating area with a dartboard and to the left is another seating area with a plasma screen that was showing muted rolling Sky News. The main body of seating is located down the left hand side of the bar and stretches back to the rear. Being a Spoons’ pub there is no music or live sports. As JDWs go this place is perfectly acceptable.

A pub called the Red Lion has graced this market square location for over 250 years, with its latest incarnation being one of Doncaster’s three Wetherspoons pubs. The use of a pre-existing pub means that this place has a bit more character than your average ‘Spoons and it seems that plenty of bits and bobs have been retained since the conversion. The place has a fairly simple layout, with a sizeable seating area either side of the front door offering lounge style furniture in a space broken up by coloured dividing screens and livened up by attractive stained glass windows. The right hand side has a raised platform with some nice dark wood panelling and a fireplace with a small stove sat in it. The horseshoe shaped servery lies beyond this area and boasts some decent stained glass itself, set into the canopy above. The pub extends beyond the servery to the left into a carpeted area with bare brick and wood panelled walls and a whole load of horse racing memorabilia. I noted, among other things, paintings of horses and famous jockeys, a small model racetrack, a series of boards listing every winner of the St Ledger and a plaque explaining that the aforementioned race was conceived of in this very room. A TV screen was advertising upcoming racing whilst further sets to the front of the pub were showing muted news coverage. I noticed another plaque commemorating the pub’s involvement as the first meeting place of the town’s freemasons. I believe there are eight hand pumps here, but it’s a bit tricky counting as they are not arranged in banks, which means you need to walk around the semi circular bar counter to check them all. Thankfully, a handy board has been placed between the front door and bar, allowing you to make your choice before you reach the servery. I opted for a pint of Thornbridge Pollards (£2.15), which went down nicely for a 5% ale. I liked the feel of this place and it didn’t really seem like I was in a Wetherspoons. The staff were very friendly, especially the waitresses who had a kind word for all of their customers, and the place seemed very popular on a Saturday lunchtime. Well worth adding to a crawl around town.

When is a Wetherspoons not a Wetherspoons? When it is the Red Lion, a conversion from what was a long-standing pub. Bar the exterior signage and some promotional posters you could almost miss it. A good number of guest ales are dotted out along a large and attractive semi-circular bar so they make you work for your reward. Both my Saltaire Olympic-themed beer and York brewery half were in good form. Plenty of equine prints on the walls and there’s a St Leger winners board, plus old pump clips above the bar. The stained glass red lion I spotted was a nice retention. Less cavernous than some Wetherspoons, this one is worth a visit in Donny or if you are a student of the Mullet’s business empire.

The Red Lion is situated on the market square and is the smallest of the 3 Wetherspoons pubs in doncaster.As Hondo says it has a horseshoe bar which takes a lot of the pubs space,but with having a low ceiling and plenty of dark wood around seems to give a more pubby feel to it.Had an excellent pint of stout from a Scottish Brewery but the name eludes me as i was slightly befuddled with drink after a heavy session at Doncaster races.