The Ward Jackson (Lloyds No 1), Hartlepool Central, Hartlepool

Not the best beer selection but Ringwood Old Thumper not too bad.

Official site of The Ward Jackson (Lloyds No 1) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of The Ward Jackson (Lloyds No 1) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

A lot of room to left and right of the central bar. It was a Friday so there was an act on the microphone, happily not that loud. Snecklifter was on to dull his sound. Not that bad a place.

This one is listed in the JDW directory as a Lloyds so as there was no obvious signage outside I was keen to try and find the Lloyds disaster area. I failed in that task. It's a roughly L shaped room in a modern building with fairly typical furnishings. The bar has just six hand pumps but as a bonus there was no Doom Bore, and every one was in use. Beers were the two from GK, Cameron's Strongarm, Maxim Double Maxim, Exmoor Gold and Big Lamp Embers. I went for the Big Lamp Embers (£1.95) which was in good nick. As for whether it's still a Lloyds, as I was leaving I noticed a Lloyds No 1 headed notice in the doorway about the dress code for Friday and Saturday night. Despite being a Lloyds it's not a bad Spoons.

Finished our day yesterday in this Wetherspoon bar as we were by now in real need of a drink of real ale after a rather dry day looking round bars with no real ale. The usual taps were on but we enjoyed the Maxim Double Maxim which was only £1.60 a pint, so £1.10 with the voucher. Also enjoyed the cold Devils Backbone DB American IPA from the craft ale they were advertising. The other one, a Brewdog lager was not on. Still the DB was reasonable at £2.99 a pint. Looked to be a good community bar.