The Portland Hotel (JD Wetherspoon), Chesterfield

An above-average Spoons in a nice, large building and with a bit of life to it. All the usual elements but somehow it comes together and feels like a proper pub. Guest ales were from Beermats, Belhaven and Gadds.

This large hotel was busy on my Saturday morning visit with mostly people in for breakfasts. It's a wide room split into various areas. The bar has two sets of five hand pumps the first of which had the JDW Trio Of Doom and a couple of ciders. The other had one available soon, Dukeries Ray Of Sunshine, Grafton Lady Julia, the Everard's / JDW Defender and Oakham Bishop's Farewell. I went for the Lady Julia (£2.15) and the Bishop's Farewell (£2.30). Both were in first class condition but the Oakham beer was outstanding. Remarkably this quite opulent Spoons has cheaper beer than the other one in town.

The better looking of the 2 Wethers in the town but the worst of the 2 beer wise today. Of the 10 handpumps 6 were the usual crap and only 3 of any interest with one 'available soon' on. It was a fairly desolate place this late Thursday afternoon. Its a large open plan place and a pleasant place despite the disappointing beer selection.

An interesting JDW from the outside with it's black & white facade. Inside it's one room, but quite cleverly divided by partitions and a couple of raised areas. There's also a small area to the right of the bar which is easily missed. Very busy on our Tuesday lunchtime visit, but it was still easy to get served. A good range of festival beers on the handpumps and my Oakleaf 10 Little Acorns was in good shape. This is a JDW lodge and I suspect you could do a lot worse than stay here as Chesterfield isn't exactly overloaded with central hotels.