Wetherspoons
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Image:The Coronet now Wetherspoons pub 2005.jpg J. D. Wetherspoon plc (Template:Lse) (usually called Wetherspoons) is a British pub chain founded by Tim Martin.
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Brief details
Wetherspoons pubs have a standard pub menu throughout the country and serve a variety of low priced cask ales, having over 650 Cask Marque accredited houses. There is often a local ale available. Pubs in the chain never play background music and usually do not have televisions or screen live sports and when there is a television, the sound is muted. The chain has formidable buying power and until recently did not stock Jack Daniels or any Bacardi products because of conflicts with suppliers. It still does not currently stock Southern Comfort. The company is based in Watford in Hertfordshire.
Pubs
Wetherspoon pubs often show surprising sensitivity to the history and character of the local areas. Usually the pubs are named after a famous local character or gentryman. The decor and fittings tend to be in the standard faux-Victorian public house style with the addition of photos of the local area and information boards concerning local history. Many pubs are in large converted buildings that were not pubs before, such as cinemas, churches or supermarkets.
Pricing
Wetherspoons have a policy of offering low price products; they will often claim to be offering among the lowest priced coffee or burgers of any national chain. The £3.99 'Beer and Burger' offer (a burger, accompanied by potato chips and a drink selected from a prescribed list of options) is indicative of the chain's good-value. Other such deals include the Curry, Sunday, China (at selected outlets only) and Steak clubs that offer similar combinations of food and drink on certain days of the week with an emphasis on low-price. The price of cask beer is almost always lower than other pubs, and pre-mixed drinks can be considerably cheaper. Although there is currently concern in the UK about cheap alcohol promoting a 'binge drinking' culture, Wetherspoons' pubs are often not as troubled by drink related violence and loutishness as other venues.
Name
JD Wetherspoon got its name from the Chairman, Tim Martin's teacher in New Zealand named Mr. Wetherspoon, who once wrote on a report that Martin would never amount to anything. The JD part came from JD out of The Dukes of Hazzard, apparently one of Martin's favourites.
Non-smoking policy
On January 24 2005, JD Wetherspoon announced they would be banning smoking throughout the chain, the first UK chain to do this, with all new openings from that date to be non-smoking, 60 others were to become non-smoking on May 19 2005 and phased in all other branches through to May 2006. In the end, their May 19 2005 date was too ambitious and was not met. However, all new openings and refurbishments will be non-smoking, and, as of Aprl 2006, JD Wetherspoon has almost 90 non-smoking pubs.
Lloyds No1 Bar
The company also own a chain of new-style bars, under their "Lloyds No1 Bar" brand. These bars play contemporary music (along with corresponding music videos that are displayed on wall-mounted televisions) and often have a small dancefloor that is used at weekends. Lloyds Bar has a similar food menu to the normal Wetherspoons outlets and, in keeping with Wetherspoons tradition, the prices tend to be below those of other bars of this type.