please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Top top Wetherspoons. Excellent range and consistently well served beers. Eager and friendly staff. Clean toilets. Food a good as Wetherspoon gets. The atmosphere is to my mind enhanced by the mixed clientele. As a CAMRA member I cannot understand why this pub has never been considered for the Good Beer Guide....yet the cold empty no-beer Bricklayers in Putney is a fixture.
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Dementer, you ignoramus, WETHERSPOONS does NOT have an "A" . If my son spelt like you I would ask for a refund!
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Old sleps has found his true mark in life Weatherspoons like him cheap but not cheerful. What a moron.
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The Wibbas has stated to take ales from the nearby By the Horns Brewery, i've tried some of their ales and they seem to be very good indeed.
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A large retail conversion Wetherspoon. So large that if you enter from the Wimbledon Theatre side you might not realise that the larger of the two bars is at the other side. When I went on a Monday night there was only one staff member and a queue at the small bar but more staff and no queue at the large bar. Small bar had six ales labelled and the large bar a dozen - not sure how many actually on - at least one pump clip was there to disguise a broken pump. However, the Butcombe Bitter and Exmoor Beast were in excellent nick. Food was as other Wetherspoon outlets - cheap, decent and speedy - handy for a swift nosh before the panto.
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Great beer selection, well looked after, but as with all Weatherspoons, the clientele are not as well behaved/refined as I'd like, but the food is well priced and exactly what you expect.
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I have finally stopped drinking in the Wibbas Down after giving it one more try. I don't say that it is markedly different to other Wetherspoons pubs, as they have a reputation for down-market hostelries, but in recent times the proliferation of old plonkers in baseball caps talking a lot of bollocks at the top of their voices has placed the Wibbas Down beyond the pale. When Wetherspoon first started opening pubs, they were a haven of tranquil drinking and good conversation until the pot-bellied plonkers discovered that the beer was cheaper than elsewhere; since when, they have converged on the pubs like a pack of Rab C. Nesbitts on speed. Nothing will return the pubs to their former glory except a reasonable dress code and an elocution test to be taken by all who enter.
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Top notch JDW. Great range of beers in good condition. Sambrooks Pale was especially good. Strong management and eager staff make this one of the best Wetherspoons.
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YES it is a strange shaped pub and yes like all other Weatherspoons it does attract the weirdo's and looneys because of the cheap ale prices. I was in here around Christmas and on ordering my first of several real ales (great selection, kept well and good prices) got chatted up by a long legged, drunken Russian bird with lovely everythings. Sadly she was hanging round with a Klitchko brother lookalike and as much as I wanted to congergate her entire verb then my head wanted to stay exactly where it was on my shoulders and rather than chance it with Alexei the bloody hard knock I gave it a miss. I did contemplate getting her outside for a 5min against the wall 'quickie' but even that chance faded as she returned back to the gormless, passport cheat. Good staff and decent boozer otherwise.
Mcloj - 12 Jul 2011 12:51 |
I happened to be in Wimbledon and decided to have a pint in the Wibass down
which I hadn't been in for a year. As it was around 2pm there were only about 5 or 6 other guys in the Wimbledon theatre end of the pub. It was nice and peaceful and I was enjoying my pint when someone who looked exactly like the tramp that used to introduce Monty Python's Flying Circus emerged from the other end and took up position outside for a smoke. Then he came back inside, and inspected the beer pumps with a magnifying glass before ordering one and disappearing into the far reaches of the pub. I was relieved to see him go and was about to order another when I heard the barmaid say "Hello Charlie". Charlie emerged from the same direction as the tramp, and holding a pint took up position at one of the tables; at which point, I made a quick exit. You see, Charlie seems to spend all his time there and is the reason I hadn't been there for a year. Because Charlie is the biggest bore in Christendom and will collar anyone who happens to be having a quiet drink and belabour them with his totally uninteresting life story. And this highlights a basic fault with Wetherspoons pubs in general in that they invariably attract weirdos on account of the cheap beer. This is a pity, because if you choose the correct time of day, it would otherwise be possible to enjoy a couple of pints in a civilised atmosphere.
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Strange shaped pub. Also, for some reason they like to keep the doors open which creates a bit of a wind tunnel affect. If you sit on the big tables in the middle of the pub, you can then easily get beer from both bars (& there is no wind blowing through!). As other posters say, very good beer range.
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Why is this pub not in the Good Beer Guide? All the pumps fully loaded. Friendly and enthusiastic staff - I find that if you are smiling and open bar staff are too. Food regular Wetherspoons...and nothing wrong with that. Lively and sociable crowd and fully functioning loos thoughout the day. The manager and his team have done extremely well in all departments.
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1 in 10 staff have a smile on their face. Make you wait for ages at the bar and serve the nearest person to them not the next in the queue waiting. No atmosphere, big and unfriendly just like the staff.
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A bit of a mixed view about this pub. On the plus side the range of real ales can't be beaten anywhere else in Wimbledon. At busier times they often have a different ale on each of the 18 (!!) handpumps. Visiting yesterday they had six Xmas ales alone on.
On the minus side, the food is nothing special (though good value for money). The pub is packed with teenies on Friday and Saturday nights and the toilets transform to natural wetlands by about 9pm. The rest of the week this place is well worth a visit though.
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Nice pub. Friendly staff. Good breakfast. Clean toilets. Good range of beer. What more could you ask.
One moan - the tables often need a wipe down (not too much to ask)
Cheers
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By sheer chance I happened to be in Wimbledon to-day and after over 4 years decided to visit this pub. I found it to be somewhat improved since my last visit. Still dimly lit, but the decoration was in good order. The toilets were not bad either.
The last time I was there it was a Lloyds now it has reverted to being a normal (if that's the right word) Wetherspoons. The real ale selection was very good although all the beers were priced differently with Fuller's ESB priced at £2.80!!!!
They also had Hogsback's T over A at 9% but much cheaper than ESB.
The food was served quickly and in reasonable quantities. The staff including the manager were quite friendly and helpful.
Despite my earlier comment of years ago that I wouldn't go back, I would now say that I most certainly would.
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i love this place, been drinking there on and off for a year since i moved to the area, ok i go there because its cheap, id love for it to have music but u make ur own fun right, staff are helpfull, even remember what i drink so all in all well done
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Gods waiting room....full of tossers banging on about the war.....staff too be avoided.....toilets desparingly smelly.
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Average Spoons serving a decent number of festival ales in good condition. Bar staff were helpful.
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Large, above average, (for real ale choice and quality), Wetherspoons, with 2 separate bars at either entrance.
Visited during the Autumn beer festival and found 18 real ales on handpump, and all the ones we tried were in good nick. Since then we have been back several times and the range and quality is generally very good, (one minor quibble is that the ales on the 'main' bar are a bit too cold at times).
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Standard JDW joint - big, spacious, entertaining some 'characters' and cheap ale. Not much to say about this really, had a pint of Sharp's Nadelik which was adequate, although it took ages to get served on New Years Day with one member of staff behind the massive bar. Not very smart if you ask me, or other disgruntled punters.
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Very unprepossessingly-looking building, and a fairly standard 'spoons interior with the ambience not helped by the low ceiling in the front section. However, with some 17 festival real ales on at the bargain price of £1.69 one really shouldn't complain too much. The beer was fine, the tables clear and the bar service was efficient too. The toilets were disgusting, though...
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As Wetherspoons go, this one is by no means the worst. I popped in last night and there was a choice of something like 15 real ale handpumps - that counts as a beer festival in some pubs.
I only had a half (of Burton Bridge Stairway to Heaven), but it was fine and cost just 95p. There were plenty of places to sit and it seemed reasonably clean and not too dominated by (to quote the reviewer below) "30-40 year-old oiks".
Perhaps it's a pub best frequenting earlier in the week, as I did. But if you want a pub that serves a beer range that's hard to beat, you can't really knock it. Apart from that, it's a bog-standard Wetherspoons, and you don't go in one if you want a quiet night with posh nosh.
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I avoided going to this pub on on Saturday because I understand that at weekends it gets full of kids and is rowdy. However, yesterday (Monday) I went there only to find there was a quiz night at the end of the bar where I had arranged to meet someone. "WHAT KIND OF SHOP HAS THREE HANGING BALLS OUTSIDE ?" were the words I was greeted with on entering the bar, and similar inane questions were boomed out during the evening. What is it about the English that they cannot go out for a drink and a chat without some pointless distraction going on in the background, be it ...Pop m usic, television, quiz nights etc. Having said that, the service was OK and if you sit near the windows you have enough light to read a newspaper.
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Bog standard and not very good Wetherspoons. In fact 'bog' is the word that comes to mind when considering this pub.
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Really not a good example of a wetherspoons. The food isn't very good and the tables are often dirty and sticky. It is a massive place and is popular but that is more to do with the pricing I think. Some weatherspoons are good, some excellent, this unfortunately is on the list of poor ones
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Many years ago the building now occupied by this pub was a large sprawling Tesco (before Tesco went (sort of) upmarket).
Very dark inside. Service fairly slow on the larger front bar and you get the feeling that regulars when recognised are consistently queue jumped. Staff look very young, don't recall seeing anyone over about age 25/30 tops.
Food OK, drinks service friendly enough once it arrives.
Not a leading Spoons but not a disaster either.
So that's the dirty fork - but here's the dirty knife:
in at least one of the gents' there are what appear to be cameras in the ceilings.
One wonders if that is _really_ necessary, even nowadays. Management hereby invited to comment.
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One of the worst examples of a Wetherspoons, poor disinterested staff, beers regularly off, the management would do well to look in the nearby Spoons like The Edward Rayne or The Coronation Halls.
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This has to be just about the most bland Weatherspoons pub I've ever been in. The beers are okay, but nothing out of the ordinary, whilst the grudging, unsmiling service is perhaps the only thing that sets this apart from other pubs in their chain.
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Typical town 'spoons. Bit dark inside. Purity brewery offering was ok.
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Huge pub with a good range of beers, and great prices. Greene King IPA at 99p a pint is a good deal by any standards. Unfortunately, beer in Wetherspoons pubs just never tastes quite 'right' to me. I had some kind of Winter Ale which was almost undrinkable. The 'Pedigree' was not too bad, but too cold and tasted metallic. The only one I enjoyed was the Abbott, and that was nothing special. Good place to meet and possibly get a bite to eat, but lacking in character and atmosphere.
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Enjoyed the Christmas beers last night, also found the bar service friendly.
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Poor service ,poor beer, a real disaster of a pub.
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Well run by very professional manager. Wide selction of well kept ales. Pleasant relaxed atmosphere.
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Typical spoons. Unremarkable.
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staff seem friendly enough. ales always tasty.
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Had a decent pint and a nice snack here. Bog standard Wetherspoons - no complaints.
chick - 16 Aug 2008 15:35 |
Drink here on occassion.
Jason-nice guuy always friendly.
Emma-"one of the managers"-you are soooo hot...
and the rest of the staff are always cheerful and friendly as well.
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After reading these previous review im not sure what people where thinking?
I've had many visit to the wibbas and found it a charming pub! The staff are courteous and well mannered, bend over backwards to help, food is available from 9am until 10pm! The real ale selection is amazing and i hear the pub is turning back to a wetherspoons rather than a Lloyds!
Brill Pub Brill Service!!
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Worse than football hooligans. Was in there last night 29/2/8 and seems like a mixture of cheap alcohol and simple minded yobs is the perfect recipe for fights. I dont mind if they want to go round killing each other but dodging the flying glasses puts everyone at risk. Doorstaff need to be trained better and a strict door policy is in need to keep out the trash.
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Typical Spoons - but a vast one. Just what you'd expect - except because of its size, you can sometimes escape from the usual Spoons clientele. It has two bars, and the one nearer the theatre tends to be margially more upmarket.
One plus point is that it does have a good range of ales, sometimes some unusual ones. It's not really a place to linger, but can be OK to have a couple of pints before going on somewhere else. There are definitely worse Wetherspoons than this one, and they did have a decent ale festival in October, with two racks of casks on the raised area near the non-theatre entrance.
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I used to go here 7-8 years ago and more. It doesn't see to have changed much reading the reviews, and I can't really add much more. Rubbish.
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It is now indeed a Lloyds bar, which means they've added tv screens and music (and DJs on Fri/Sat nights). In my youth I had great fun in Spoons, but if I go there now for a swift (cheap) one I spend my time people-watching, and wondering if I would have looked so "samey" when I went in there years ago.
The clientele in there nowadays seem to all dress the same!
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Dreadful place, dreadful service, just dreadful.
On a recent early evening visit, the bouncers were busy blocking the front entrance chatting with each other(and a manager). Which considering that we had just walked miles from the back entrance where the trained monkeys weren't letting anyone in (no admission - you'll have to go round the front) was a bit much. Especially when the place was still half empty.
Has recently gained a DJ area and a dancefloor. Also lots of flat screen TVs showing Sky News with sound turned off, but with rolling subtitles
which lag minutes behind the video. Both of which have served to make the place look even more of a downmarket dump.
Service still deplorable, largely because of the the policy of using the minimum number of seemingly totally inexperienced staff possible.
Beer - well the draught Belgian beer was good, even if we had to use Google when we got home to decode the cryptic message on the pump clip to find out what we had been drinking. Will Wetherspoons start selling Stella as Luton lager I wonder?
anonymous - 17 Apr 2007 14:34 |
Very similar to the one at Kingston which is now a Lloyds. It was originally part of a supermarket but to me it's another one of JDW's conversion from a gallery in a coal mine. Dark and gloomy and not very inviting. The bouncers do not help matters as they were obviously not taught manners when they were in captivity at the zoo. It has certainly deteriorated overthe last 2 years or so. Would not visit again.
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I used to go there on late Saturday afternoon (the only decent time for a Wetherspoons) for a couple of decent ales (the only decent reason for aWetherspoons).
However, the last two times I went in there, the service was shoddy. I was waiting for ages to be served, to no avail, and walked out on both occasions (I gave it a second chance). This is nothing short of criminal for a pub and I've not been back since.
Now I go to the Hand & Racquet, which has decent ales served directly from the cask as well as good service.
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As with all Wetherspoons, the top-drawer selection of guest ales is the main selling point and the reason it gets a 6. There is always unique beers on to try, although despite this the majority of patrons seem to stick to their chemical lager.
So if you can put up with the smell, the sloppy service, the drunks, the tatty interior, the kids, etc, it is worth a crack, if only for a new pint of beer.
anonymous - 10 May 2006 16:53 |
I agree with the previous lot!
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Gone down the pan recently - i'm having trouble seeing my pint on a friday night cos it's so dark.
Why have spoons got silly coloured lights everywhere
anonymous - 4 Apr 2005 22:40 |
good food good prices ok drink thats about it, i hear this place use 2 b a tescos dont surpise me its massive, if you want a fight then this is the place except for yates of course
anonymous - 20 Feb 2005 13:47 |
typical weatherspoons, namely cheap food and beer, however the bar staff seem oblivious to the 14 year olds drinking in there making the whole place a chav palace.
if you want cheap, then this is the place, and thats the only thing going for it.
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They might as well park the police van outside here on a Friday, it ends up there in the end. Has competition as the biggest fight spot in Wimbledon now Yates's is open.
Richard - 12 Oct 2004 23:12 |
The service is very poor, if you want a drink quick send your hardest looking mate. The cheapness though makes the wait almost bearable. It is the ASDA of the pub world, dirty but cheap.
mathew - 26 Sep 2004 14:29 |
Dreadful... the staff are rude, slow and always get it wrong... the management are useless... the tables are sticky and dirty and nobody seems to care... the food is soggy or stale... I only go there because it is cheap and on price it can't be beaten... on self pride it can be beaten almost anywhere...
A.A.L - 9 Aug 2004 14:26 |
i love it there...its good if u want to just go for a reasonably quiet night of drinks n chats with friends or as a place to kick a big night off at as its a lot cheper than other places in wimbledon!
sarah - 26 Mar 2004 16:33 |
much like any other 'spoons. the only appeal is the double g&t for £1.99. *re: Scotty's comment, well, that's wimbledon for you. they probably all came on the tramlink from croydon though.
johnson - 22 Mar 2004 16:57 |
As stated elsewhere - cheap but not cheerful. Weekends after 9 it turns into a creche full of pikie slappers and boy racers
Scotty - 15 Mar 2004 22:17 |
Nothing wrong with the place, it's busy every night and it's not just full of 'scum'. They must be doing something right.
sarah - 15 Feb 2004 00:08 |
It's rubbish. They don't clean the glasses properly. The clientle is almost exclusively Ben Sherman and Burberried up. Avoid like the plague
Joe - 12 Jan 2004 17:20 |
A massive pub with loads of seating. Usual Weatherspoons pub, and the beer is not bad and ok priced. Pretty good place to settle down for an evenings beer and chat. They do food, but I haven't tried - better off going to one of the millions of food places in Wimbledon.
anonymous - 7 Jan 2004 16:59 |
Cheap but not very chearful! A poor pub for poor people. Avoid if you're not on benefits.
anon - 27 Nov 2003 13:21 |
I used to drink here a lot. It's had it's ups and downs but in the end me and me mates gave up on it.On busy Saturday nights there was just never enough bar staff and those who were serving were totally inefficient and the organization hopeless. The length of time it took to get served became ridiculous.
It was a regularly especial pisser to see about 3 staff serving behind one long bar with 3 deeps worth of customers waiting, whilst there were 6 staff collecting bloody plates!
Better management needed here.
Bob V - 3 Nov 2003 20:49 |
door staff are definately on a power trip...probably of the sort who'd thump ya for 'looking at them funny'
cheap drink tho (what else would it be at wetherspoons?!)
anonymous - 15 Aug 2003 17:56 |
this is not a nice pub, but yet i'm strangely drawn to it. Been going there since I was 15. Scary customers - i went to school with most of them. At least it's unpretentious.
piglette - 1 Aug 2003 15:43 |
The beer ain't bad but it's too enormous to be welcoming. The bouncers on the door are a turn-off too and, a couple of weeks ago, I saw one of them being a little too 'keen' with an admittedly drunk but defenceless old boy. If this pub was a person it would be Shane Richie...which its regulars might take as a compliment.
Zak - 24 Jul 2003 19:11 |
cheap beer,but really homophobic staff.when myself and my boyfrend mark went in there we were made to feel totally unwelcome and made to feel uncomftable.
warren.bradshaw. - 7 Jul 2003 19:21 |
Full of Mitchamites itching for a punch up....and that's just the bouncers. The clientele range from 15 year old scrubbers to sixty year old wide-boys, the one common feature is all they sport large amounts of gold and have more than half their body covered in tats.
PC Spittle - 7 Jul 2003 09:41 |
Bloody horrible place. Awful beer, slow service, Doormen with attitude. Don't bother.
Andy - 4 May 2003 01:34 |
This pub is full of kids. The bouncers ID everyone, even if you're over25. And it takes ages to get served. Avoid at all costs.
FoxyChick - 17 Apr 2003 19:32 |
Huge, nicely decorated, friendly, very cheap! And they sell beer! What more do u want?
Pete - 26 Jan 2003 11:20 |
Cheap, when you eventually get served !
ritmic - 26 Jul 2002 12:51 |
Really huge (used to be a Tescos apparently). Cheep (obviously), take ID if it's Friday-Sunday. Gets very full during the school holidays.
Could do with more bar staff but so could every pub in the world.
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