Wetherspoons
J D Wetherspoon plcJ D Wetherspoon plc, branded as Wetherspoon and popularly known as Wetherspoon's or Spoon's, is a pub chain in the UK and Republic of Ireland, with its headquarters in Watford. Founded in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company owns just under 1,000 outlets. The chain's pubs offer cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No.1 chain of bars, as well as Wetherspoon Hotels.
The chain is known for converting unconventional premises into pubs. Premises tend to be large by British pub standards, and use an open plan layout.
The company is listed on the and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Tim Martin opened his first pub in 1979, on Colney Hatch Lane in Muswell Hill, north London. Many of the other early Wetherspoon pubs were also in the western part of Haringey. The J D Wetherspoon name comes from one of Martin's teachers in New Zealand who could not control his class.
Martin chose the name when he was running his first pub in Muswell Hill. "I decided to call it Wetherspoon's after a former teacher – not because the teacher in question at my primary school in New Zealand had said I would never make it, as some people think, but because he was too nice a fellow to be running our particular class and he couldn't control it. So I thought: I can't control the pub, he couldn't control the class, so I'll name it after him."The "JD" part of the name was named after Dr JD Watson, whom Tim Martin met on holiday in Castlerock, Northern Ireland.
In the early 1990s, Wetherspoon began a policy of routinely selling off its smaller or less profitable outlets, often—but not always—replacing them with larger premises close by. There are now around 100 ex-Wetherspoon pubs, and none of the earliest outlets in the chain are still part of the estate. The oldest surviving Wetherspoon is The Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington, opened in 1983.
In 1998, Wetherspoon introduced oversized glasses and promoted the "full pint". This initiative was soon withdrawn, supposedly because customers were still asking for top-ups, but arguably because other pub chains did not follow its lead.
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