The Sir Richard Owen (JD Wetherspoon), Lancaster

This is a good sized, town centre branch of Wetherspoons, split across two levels and accessible from the front and via a rear entrance down a rather uninviting back alley. I entered via the main, Upper Spring Garden Street entrance, into a fairly compact, carpeted room with the servery over in the rear right corner. The bar has a plain, wood panenelled counter front with an unusual light box feature beneath the counter top and a broad bar back due to the deep serving space behind the counter, behind which there is plenty of dark wood shelving and fridges. High tables and stools run through much of this upper level, with regular tables and chairs over to the left. The room has a high ceiling with concrete beams running across it and a few slot machines stand on either side, whilst TV screens were showing muted news coverage. Stairs lead down to a similarly compact lower bar area, which is full of regular tables and chairs and has its own section of servery. When I first visited, there were three 'Spoons regular ales and three guests on the handpulls, although an extra guest had appeared when I popped in a couple of days later. On my initial visit, I tried Coach House Old Porter, which was a fine beer in pretty good shape, whilst on my return, I sampled another guest which I forgot to note down, but it was in great nick. I also ate here and found the staff friendly and prompt with their service and the food the usual reliable, unspectacular fayre. Despite the split level layout this place felt small and cramped, with limited seating available once a bit of a crowd has built up. Whilst the beer seemed to be in good condition and the service was friendly, the pub itself is a bit underwhelming, making it a worthy, if rather uninspired, addition to a crawl around the city centre. Date of visit - 14th January 2024

A fairly standard Wethers on two levels. The front (upper) level houses the bar and the rear (lower) level leads to a small outside patio. 10 handpulls but once you took away the Wethers Three I was left with a fairly mundane selection. Saying that the Beartown Creme Bearlee was delightful.

Not a bad Spoons with the semi circular bar to the right as you enter. Usual suspects on hand pumps to the right, guest ales to the left that I could not see properly. Bar downstairs at the back which I used as the other area was quite full.

I turned up here early on a Friday evening, probably the worst possible time to visit a Spoons or any other pub. It was very busy and the staff were under pressure to keep things going. Superficially it seems like a small Spoons until you see the large lower area down some steps to the left. The bar is in the upper area so I ignored the downstairs room. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps and it was too busy to note everything but on top of the usual suspects and cider there was Lytham IPA & Harvest Gold and Moorhouse Pendle Porter. I went for the Lytham IPA (£1.95) and managed to find a seat. It was in good nick. It's hard to judge any pub at a peak time but this seemed to be a fair Spoons with the plus point of still selling beer at under two quid a pint.

An unusual split level JDW, but sadly without much character once you get inside. When you enter from Spring Garden Street there is a smallish area and the bar, which had 10 ales available on our 2 visits. Down some fairly steep steps is a larger room which is all dining tables and chairs. We called in for one at about 3 and another one at about 11 at the start & end of a crawl round Lancaster. Both pints I had were in very good condition and there was a decent range of guests available. We also called in for breakfast the following morning and had the most efficient breakfast service I've had in any JDW anywhere. The management and the staff are obviously on the ball at this JDW. Well done guys.

Accessible from both Spring Garden St and Common Garden St. We took the Spring St entrance, which was the upper level in this Spoons. The lower lounge area is found from a staircase near the bar or disabled lift, which also had a stove. We stayed upstairs and were entertained by the conversations from the four locals on the next table. They were also getting through the Tuborg like no tomorrow, even though it was only 10.30am. Ten handpumps and 1 cider, we went for the Kirby Lonsdale Monumental.