The William Jameson (JD Wetherspoon), Sunderland

Called into this 2019 Good Beer Guide JDW last month and found the usual beers on offer plus a few decent guest beers. We opted for Maxim Dray & Horses and St Peter's Plum Porter both of which served well.

Bog-standard city-centre 'spoons with no distinguishing features (except that the staff seemed reasonably efficient in terms of serving and clearing away) and at least it has windows on two sides. Two banks of six handpumps, and allowing for a few duplicates there were still a few less-usual real ales, e.g. Matfen Magic from the High House Farm Brewery (£1.85).

As mentioned below this is a an old school Spoons consisting of a long narrow room with all the old style features from the dark blue and gold plastic external signage to the shelves of books inside. The bar has two sets of six hand pumps which had the JDW Trio of Doom with the GK beers doubled up, Coach House Gunpowder Mild doubled up, a cider, Vale Gravitas, High House Farm Nettle Ale, Wickwar Falling Star and Sonnet 43 Seraphim Blonde. I went for the Nettle Ale (£1.99) which was in good nick but a dull beer. This was my favourite of the Sunderland Spoons.

William Jameson was a town planner who helped layout much of Sunderland City Centre, presumably including the site of this large Wetherspoons pub which looks like (and indeed is) a converted department store. In many ways, this is a classic old-school Wetherspoons venue, exhibiting a lot of the stylistic features of the chain's early ventures, so it comes as no surprise that this is the oldest of Sunderland's three Wetherspoons venues. The pub has a large single room layout, carpeted throughout and with the servery positioned mid-way along the left hand wall. Entering from Fawcett Street you pass through a raised front seating area with lots of standard tables and chairs. Beyond are some nice padded bench booths with attractive partitioning screens, opposite the long servery with its plain counter and mirrored bar back. To the rear is a sizeable space with standard seating and a few more booths, dominated by large book shelves on the rear wall which gives the space the feel of a private library. The whole right side of the pub is on a significantly lower level, but this only runs in a narrow strip directly under the large windows, offering two rows of small tables with plenty of natural light. Some of the windows here have touches of stained glass to brighten things up a bit and there are loads of old photos and snippets of local information dotted throughout the pub. This place has a reputation for sourcing beers from local brewers and had six guest ales, almost entirely from the North East, alongside four 'Spoons regulars, a couple of which were doubled up. I tried a pint of Leamside Brockwell - a beer from Houghton le Spring which was okay but not in the greatest shape. The service here was pretty off-hand which was in marked contrast to that in the Lambton Worm, and indeed most other pubs I visited in Sunderland. I quite liked the time-warp quality of this place - it really did feel like I was drinking in a 'Spoons in the late 90's - and thought there were a few decent spots to bag a seat. This was tempered by the service and average pint, but I saw enough to know that this one shouldn't be written off. A decent option for a quick beer before departing at the nearby train or metro station.

Classic late 90s Spoons conversion at the base of a distinctly unlovely building. J-shaped interior with the usual JDW stylings of the time. The fake leaded windows with blue and green coloured glass made for the best seating and unsurprisingly all we're taken. Ate here, food was OK but a little slapdash. A good range of ale on, chalked up on a board with tasting notes so someone in here is keen. My Maxim Ruby was, if not exactly ruby in colour, a fair drop and in good nick. It’s not a particularly nice place but the beer range and quality was the best encountered in the three Sunderland Wetherspoons.

Very standard Wetherspoons, one room, dark wood tables/chairs. You know what you get. The staff seem efficient but I had a very short measure - seems management here is good but staff need to be more aware. All average