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The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon), Liverpool
Liverpool
L1 1HU
Pub Type
J D WetherspoonReviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon)
One of several branches of Wetherspoon's in Liverpool city centre, the Richard John Blackler is probably the largest of them all. Being situated between Lime Street and Central stations, it always seems to be full with customers at all times of the day. Our recent Saturday morning visit was no exception.
The long bar dominates proceedings in the centre, with seating and standing areas around 3 sides of it. The open-plan interior can get very noisy at times, with lots of drunkenness and shouting. As usual, the cheap food is popular with many.
Service from the army of staff is always efficient, without exactly being cheerful. Regular beers here are Greene King Abbot, Ruddles Best, Sharp's Doom Bar & Wychwood Hobgoblin. With the Wetherspoon's festival drawing to a close on the day of our visit, guests were Hogs Back Home Harvest '22, Purity Warrior, Evan Evans Boadicea, Brewster's All The Leaves Are Brown, Telemark Rev Red Session IPA, Salopian Indigenous, Elgood's Double Swan & Conwy Red. I've not seen a real cider in here for some time, unless they are hidden away someplace.
If you need a pub for an early start or a late finish, it can serve a purpose and there's always a decent range of ales. However, as a drinking experience, there's very little to recommend it.
On 31st October 2022
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2454 recommendations about 2453 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Brainy Pool left this review about The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon)
with so many interesting pubs in Liverpool, I rarely visit the Wetherspoons branches in the city. but if I do, it's usually this one. though slightly worn in places it's pleasantly decorated, and with 12 handpumps on the bar you can't go wrong here for ale. it's extremely open plan but does have some nice booth seating as well as some massive windows through which you can watch the world go by.
On 16th August 2018
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1058 recommendations about 1023 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon)
This large Wetherspoons pub located roughly midway between Lime Street and Central stations, is named after the founder of Blackler's department store, the ground floor of which this pub partly occupies. The store seems to have been something of a Liverpool institution for eighty years before it closed in 1988, employing one thousand people at the peak of its success, including a certain George Harrison, who worked here as an apprentice electrician before finding gainful employment elsewhere. (In other Beatles news, Pete Best's mother apparently bought him his first drum kit from Blackler's music department).
Today we find a sizeable 'Spoons venue with a U shaped interior wrapped around a centrally positioned servery which describes a similar shape. Loads of high tables and stools fill the large space between the bar and front windows which have pleasant stained glass detail in places. To the right is another large seating area with loads of standard seating under half panelled walls with some decorative flower features above. This area is carpeted and has some good booths with smart partitioning screens before running to the rear where several steps lead up to a raised seating area that almost feels like a separate room and offers a couple more booths and plenty more tables and chairs. The left side of the pub is also under a long row of windows and is nice and light as a result. There is a whole load of additional seating here and I was surprised to find it was already very difficult to find a free table on a Saturday morning visit. The usual local information boards could be found all around the room, including one detailing the history of the song 'Ferry Cross the Mersey' on a pillar opposite the bar. Several TV screens were spotted throughout but rather unusually, they all remained switched off for the duration of my visit.
This branch of the Wetherspoons empire has made it into the 2017 Good Beer Guide, so I was looking forward to a decent pint here to kick off my day in Liverpool. There were seven guest ales on the hand pumps alongside four 'Spoons regulars and one unclipped pump. I tried a pint of the Red Star Havana Moon - a rich, moreish oatmeal stout that I savoured every last drop of. A worthy GBG addition based on that pint.
This pub's use of an interesting local building elevates it slightly from the usual humdrum city centre Wetherspoons experience and although there are no obvious links to the building's past, it's still nice that the memories of so many local's are kept alive in some way by maintaining public access to the site. I thought the beer and service here were above the usual standard and would suggest this is a safe bet for anyone wanting a quick pint before their train.
On 8th March 2017
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
custodian 42 left this review about The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon)
I've been here twice in the last few months and have had no problems being served. There is a good choice of ales today. Not the best Spoons but nowhere near the worst.
On 14th October 2016
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1693 recommendations about 1691 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Aqualung . left this review about The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon)
This was the only one of the five Spoons visited that I had been to before. It dates back to 1995 so was probably the only one in Liverpool in those days. I didn't find it any better this time than I had previously. It's an old department store with all the hallmarks of a typical 1990s Spoons. On my Saturday lunchtime visit it seemed rammed but actually wasn't. The problem was a large group of younger blokes hogging the entire central bar area. I gave up on noting all the beers and just went for a Burton Bridge Stairway To Heaven (£2.35) which was hazy and a short measure.
How this is GBG listed is beyond me and I wouldn't return.
On 21st July 2015
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Toby Jug left this review about The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon)
My advice is go somewhere else, service is slow even when the pub is empty....staff need the time to carry menu lists around the premises , leaving tables full of empty plates/glasses, and customers knee deep at the bar
On 1st March 2015
- rating: 1
[User has posted 36 recommendations about 29 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Al Bundy left this review about The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon)
This Wetherspoons, like most, must have barstaff trained by Ali Bongo and Dynamo as they all disappear when people want serving and all reappear when the bar's empty.
On 23rd January 2015
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3487 recommendations about 3390 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon)
GBG-listed Spoons. Classic mid-90’s faux Victoriana interior that to be fair is in better shape than some others in that canon. A couple of more intimate places to sup over to the left side, and my visit after a show at the Empire found the place almost deserted, being as it was 10.45 on a Sunday evening. All ales appeared to be on and my pint of Ilkley went down rather well. Usual collection of bob-a-jobs behind the bar, some better than others.
On 17th January 2015
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Peter Rydings left this review about The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon)
Had breakfast here on the 15th of April before we went to Anfield for the Hillsborough Service it was ok but for the money what do you expect will call back the only bad side was getting pestered by the shoplifters
On 18th April 2014
- rating: 6
[User has posted 948 recommendations about 917 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Richard John Blackler (JD Wetherspoon)
This is the busiest Spoons out of the three. Most weekends you'll spot the Stag and Hen party brigade starting the weekend or on a Sunday morn looking knackered. On the ale front, I went for the Weetwood Mad Hatter and JW Lees Drayman's Promise.
On 20th June 2013
- rating: 5
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]