Celebrating ‘Spoons 40th

The cover of the last London Drinker reminded us that the JD Wetherspoon pub chain (JDW) has recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. On the date itself, Monday 9 December, a group of around 25 JDW fans spent the day on buses and a train around north London visiting many of the chain’s former pubs.

Derrill Carr, a JDW fan from Hampshire, came up with the idea of visiting the first ten pubs that Tim Martin opened as Wetherspoon pubs rather than the original Marler Bars. After a lot of research with the help of Paul Compton, the opening (and in most cases, closing) dates for them were confirmed. Derrill then commissioned me to come up with a route connecting them, around some stipulated times and locations. Numbers for the day were made up from Derrill’s fellow JDW fans, some from the Wetherspoon’s Appreciation Facebook group and the ‘Super Fans’; those we could find who have visited 1,000 or more pubs in the chain. We even had a couple that have stayed at all the JDW hotels.

Photo Paul Charlton

The day started at the Lord Moon of the Mall on Whitehall for breakfast and pints of the Greene King Ruby Abbot, specially brewed for the anniversary year. Here, the official JDW photographer joined us, along with a reporter from the Independent. They joined us again as we started the crawl proper at the Furlong in Muswell Hill. This was the first pub that Tim opened as ‘Martin’s Free House’, renaming it JD Wetherspoons a month later. The manager here only started six weeks before the occasion but made us very welcome with two real ales and lunch. A mock blue plaque was added to the wall outside. The party included ‘Mr Wetherspoon’ (Steve Lawson), the teacher who inspired the chain’s name and ‘JD Boss Hogg’ (Alan Hope).

Who is the man behind the mask?

The group braved the traffic of north London to follow the detailed itinerary, along with a few side diversions on the way. The pubs visited were Dick’s Bar in Crouch End (now a window shop), Old Suffolk Punch in Haringey (now a betting shop), Mortimer Arms in Haringey (Old Ale Emporium), Marler’s Bar in Stoke Newington (Coach & Horses), Tanner’s Hall in Stoke Newington (Rochester Castle), JJ Moons in Upper Holloway (Landseer Arms), White Lion of Mortimer in Stroud Green (White Lion), Marler’s Bar in Crouch Hill (Brave Sir Robin), Elbow Room in Crouch End (Small Beer) ending up at Marler’s Bar in Archway (Charlotte Despard). This final pub is unfortunately closed on a Monday. It housed the chain’s offices from 1984 until they moved to new premises in Watford in 1994. We then caught the bus to Holloway and finished off the day at the Coronet, still a busy JDW pub.

Derrill took pictures at each pub including some with participants wearing Tim Martin face masks, very realistic in some cases. A write-up with some of the official pictures will appear in the spring edition of Wetherspoon’s News. Many thanks to Derrill for coming up with the original idea, organising the event and gathering the group together. Search for Wetherspoons Appreciation Society Facebook to join the group.
John Paul Adams

Editor’s note: John was not the only one inspired by the mention of JDW’s 40th anniversary. Roger Warhurst, the former compiler of Capital Pubcheck, has contributed the following.

Further to the reference in the last London Drinker to Tim Martin’s first pub located in Muswell Hill, long time readers may remember that the premises at 89 Colney Hatch Lane were originally opened as a pub in 1979 by his business partner Andrew Marler under the name ‘Marlers’. It was in fact reported by CAMRA’s Enfield & Barnet Branch in the very first edition of London Drinker in March 1979 as selling an ‘impressive range of beers’ on handpump, including those from Rayments, Greene King, Devenish and Arkells, and with tasteful and simple decoration.

Previously a bookmakers office and before that a club, its conversion took advantage of then recent changes in the law that dropped the requirement to relinquish an existing licence elsewhere in order to open a new pub, and relaxed planning conditions on change of use and car parking. The pub was acquired by Tim in December 1979 and renamed ‘Martins Free House’. He soon adopted the model to build up a chain across north London and eventually countrywide.

The pub, which is still trading, was later renamed ‘Wetherspoons’ and then ‘The Spoons’ but by 1994 had been sold on to Greenall’s then passing to Pubmaster before ending up with Punch in 2003. It was renamed Keenans in 2008 and received its current name Furlongs in 2017 with Sharp’s Doom Bar as the regular cask ale.

The current JDW pub in Muswell Hill, the ‘Mossy Well’, as featured on the front cover of the last London Drinker, has had just as much of a chequered history. The former Express Dairies tea room was converted to Oscars wine bar in 1983 and first became a pub proper, the Swiss Chalet, a year later, selling Marston’s Pedigree. In 1987 part was renamed the Steam Rock Cafe at the Swiss Chalet with a separate outlet created next door named Flanagans Village Bar. By 1994 it too had been sold to Greenall’s; the former was renamed the Tap & Barrel and then Ruby in the Dust, with the latter renamed the Village. Both outlets combined under the Village name from 2002 and latterly it was operated by the Capital Pub Co, before being taken over by JDW in 2015 and being renamed yet again.

Roger Warhurst