The Jubilee Oak (JD Wetherspoon), Crawley

This is one of the older (1995) provincial Spoons and it shows from both the typical shop front exterior and the fixtures inside. Apparently it was previously a Building Society. Despite that on my Thursday morning visit I found it a reasonable place with a varied assortment of punters. The three banks of five hand pumps had many duplicates but excluding the national blands there were three guest or Locale beers on. These were Hogs Back HBB, Kissingate Old Tale Porter and Welton's Churchillian Stout. I went for the Old Tale (£2.40) and Churchillian (£2.85) £2.85 sounds expensive for a Spoons but this is a 6.5% Ultra Premium band guest. Both of these were in superb condition. There isn't a great selection of beer here but my visit coincided with two excellent guests so it gets a 7.

The Jubilee Oak is a long, narrow Wetherspoons pub that feels like, and in all likelihood probably is, a shop conversion. As you enter, the bar is on the right hand side with some standard ‘Spoons seating opposite. Part of this seating area was roped off on my visit as a section of ceiling appeared to have caved in. Fortunately, it was just a bit of plasterboard and not one of the stained glass inserts that provide a bit of colour to the ceiling and indeed the room as a whole. The room narrows even more past the bar, where the pub’s mid section finds itself cramped between dark wood bookcases and bureaus which are decorated with a few mirrors. The rear section of the room seemed like the best place to grab a seat and it certainly appeared popular whilst I was there. The seating all looks comfortable with some booth type areas on the left hand side and red banquettes along the other walls. I counted fifteen hand pumps, ten of which were taken up with the regular ‘Spoons ales and ciders, with one unused pump, leaving four guest ales to choose from. This soon became three as the WJ King IPA that I’d ordered went off. The barman was very helpful and offered me a taster of my alternative choice, which was a very pleasant pint of Hepworth Harvest Ale, although strangely it did appear that the beer was pulled through a sparkler. This is a fairly characterless Wetherspoons pub, as many of their shop conversions tend to be. It’s probably worth a look if passing, if only because interesting ales are hard to come by in Crawley, but for an extended session I’d rather pop over the road to the Brewery Shades.

The tree of the pub’s title stands just outside the pub and was planted to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1887. The tree is far more interesting than the pub. This ‘Spoons has all the trademark fixtures and fittings down its bowling alley of an interior; dull, bland and also pretty lifeless on my Saturday night visit when not even the local pond life can spice it up a little. There wasn’tr even a decent ale choice that so often rescues routine ‘Spoons from getting a critical bashing with 1 guest beer available on top of the regular choices despite 15 hand pumps. It nay just have been a bad day but I would probably have been better off with a couple of tinnys and sat under the tree outside.

Official page of the Jubilee Oak - www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk