The Knights Templar (JD Wetherspoon), Bristol

Knights Templar is a JDW handily located close to Bristol Temple Meads Train Station. The bar counter along the right wall faces open plan seating. In amongst the standard and premium keg are two banks of five handpumps. Available along with the usual suspects were Brains Rev. James, Butcombe Ale, Conwy Brewery’s Rampart, Maxim Brewery’s Maximus and Peerless Knee Buckler IPA. Location dictates that I’ll probably find myself in here again at some point.

Just across the way from Bristol Temple Meads station, this is a very large, modern looking Wetherspoons pub. Massive front windows look out to a sizeable outdoor seating area in the spacious square that fronts the pub. You enter through large double doors, into a huge open plan room, carpeted throughout with the servery over on the far right hand wall. To the left, there is a large split-level seating area with comfy looking banquettes around the perimeter and regular tables and chairs elsewhere. Meanwhile, the right hand side has plenty of high tables and stools in the fairly broad space before reaching the servery. The bar has a nice counter with something written across the bottom of it, but it was far too crowded at the bar to get anything other than the odd unintelligible snatch of text, so I’ve no idea what it says. This compliments a typical Wetherspoons’ bar back and crude metal framed gantry. Above the bar, there is a massive clock circled by the pub’s name, which is by some way the most interesting feature you’re likely to find in here. The room runs a short way to the rear past the end of the bar, where plenty more tables and chairs can be found in a fairly uninspiring part of the pub. Decor is pretty Spartan, with the usual ‘Spoons info boards and TV screens showing muted news coverage being just about as good as it gets. A truly miserable barman greeted my arrival with as little enthusiasm as possible as I ordered one of the five guest ales available on this visit (I forgot to note which beer I took). There were also three ‘Spoons regulars and two real ciders on handpull – my pint was okay but hardly in ideal condition. I quite liked this place at first and think it’s a decent station-side ‘Spoons with a decent guest ale ratio and plenty of comfortable seating, but I soon cooled on it thanks to the sub-par beer quality, dour service and manic clientele. It’s by no means a bad ‘Spoons but neither is it the stand-out branch I initially thought it might be – great for a quick half before taking a train though.

This Spoons at the bottom of a hideous modern office block is smaller than the exterior would suggest. It's a wide room with the bar on the right and a single raised area plus fairly typical furnishings. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps which had the JDW Trio Of Doom with Ruddles doubled, 2 ciders, Celt Experience Galaxy Equinoxe, Oakham JHB, Bath Gem and some cricket themed rubbish from GK. I went for the Galaxy Equinoxe (£2.95) which was cloudy so I sent it back and replaced it with the Black Dragon cider. This is a typical city centre JDW, more expensive than normal and on the evidence of my morning visit not very good.

The Knights Templar is a modern Spoons that is Close Bristol Temple Meads station. I had big problems trying to find this pub after coming out of the station,i ended up asking a young couple for directions and luckily they were going there so i followed them. Once inside there is an L shaped room with the bar on the right side,the room is carpeted and the seating the usual Spoons type with tall tables and chairs to the front left and normal ones elsewhere. There were three guest beers i cold choose from,i had a drink of Moles Best which went down well after my journey done to Bristol,the other beers noted were DBC Frosted Jack,Prescott Hill Climb and Spoons regulars Ruddles Best,GK Abbot and Doom Bar. This is a decent enough Spoons if you can find it. While writing my notes i was very surprised when an unknown person asked me if i was Alan Winfield,at first i did'nt know what to say,i then realised it was Jon from Pubs Galore,who then went on to do the full Bristol pub crawl with me,no need to look at my A-Z of Bristol he told me which way to go all the way through the crawl,a great help and many thanks for that. Pub visited 23/1/2016

This is a 'spoons set on the ground floor of a modern glass and steel building just round the corner from Temple Meads Station. Being a 'spoons there's a good ale selection at reasonable prices, plus the usual pub grub food available. Here we have the usual 'spoons mix of tall tables/tall stools and normal tables and chairs crammed into the large open space. The only slightly unusual things were the very large clock on the wall behind the servery, and the montage of local scenes on one wall in the form of a cross. The clientele when we were in on Saturday afternoon seemed to be transient travellers, presumably getting a final drink in before boarding a train at Temple Meads - which is exactly what my companion and I were doing. As 'spoons go it's nothing very special, largely having the atmosphere of a station pub, but having said that I'm really pleased it's there for the benefit of thirsty travellers.