Pub Odyssey 44

Tuesday 8 November:  THE SIX TEMPLARS, HERTFORD (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, David Room, Andrew Swift, Jeff Tipper)

COMMENT:  I travel fairly frequently into London so J D Wetherspoon pubs are familiar to me.  I remember a few years ago, before the financial meltdown, sitting in a JDW near Liverpool Street station watching as young versions of Attila the Stockbroker (they looked about 17) came in and slapped huge wads of banknotes on the bar; the one with the smallest wad had to buy the drinks.  Probably all the teenage Attilas are struggling to hang on to their jobs now.  Going back to that JDW would tell me more about the progress of the recession than any number of speeches by Mr Osborne.
  
The Attilas may not have been very lovable (they made Lord Sugar's apprentices look like a set of Albert Schweitzers) but they certainly gave central London JDWs an atmosphere.  Atmosphere was a bit lacking the the Six Templars.  The food was OK, the selection of beers first class, the service good and prompt- no complaints at all really;  but it was a bit like having a pub lunch in a bank.  We made our own atmosphere, there being seven of us, and had a good time, but I wouldn't have called it cosy or intimate.  A Wetherspoons looks its best crammed to the gunnels with people, loud, cheerful, even  raucous, but in Hertford it probably doesn't get like that very often.

These are not criticisms, I think J D Wetherspoon is a Good Thing.  They are great supporters of real beer and have done a lot to bring the product into the modern world.  Also, for someone like me who loves the oddities and eccentricities of British life J D Wetherspoon has made a big contribution.  What could be more eccentric than a pub chain founded by Tim Martin, a 6 foot 6inch Irishman-New Zealander (went to 11 schools in Ulster and New Zealand) who sports a mullet haircut and called his pub chain J D Wetherspoon after one of his teachers who couldn't control his class and told Mr Martin he would never be a success in business?  You couldn't make it up. But Wetherspoons is on the side of the angels, promoting cask beer, low prices, long opening hours and no music.  In 2011 they hit the £1 billion sales mark; long may it continue.