Long before the glass doors opened, a queue had formed outside a new catering concession at London Waterloo: not another Upper Crust or Burger King, but the biggest J D Wetherspoon at a railway station.
Mick Allen from Dartford was among the “Wetherspoon tickers” eagerly waiting to visit the latest addition to the pub chain’s hundreds of outlets. This group of (mainly male) enthusiasts travel the length and breadth of Britain in a bid to visit every “Spoons”.
“I’m on 708,” he says. “I’ve got 96 more to go, including this one.”
Burger King does not generate such enthusiasm for completism. Unlike the fast-food chain, every J D Wetherspoon is different – reflecting at least something of local history.
The Lion & The Unicorn is not exactly a heritage location; it occupies part of the Eurostar terminal abandoned when cross-Channel trains moved across town to St Pancras. The name derives from a long-demolished pavilion at the South Bank Exhibition for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Some of the 580 seats in the pub carry the embossed names of the worthies involved in planning the festival, which was intended to lift the nation’s spirits from post-war austerity. Whether customers will appreciate the mid-century vibe, complete with giant black-and-white prints of the festival site, is another matter.
“We try to get into as many transport hubs as we can,” says Barry Brewster, the appropriately named regional manager for J D Wetherspoon. He looks after the chain’s properties at rail stations and airports.
“We’re in quite a few already across London, but this is by far and away the biggest project we’ve done in the last several years.”
A pub in a railway station or an airport is inevitably different from one on a high street: far fewer regulars, far more transient customers and time pressure more intense than the usual call for last orders.
But goodness, catering for people on the move is profitable. The market leader is Select Service Providers (SSP). It was born in 1966 as British Rail Catering and is now a global enterprise worth £1.36bn.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) investigated the station catering market this summer and believes up to half of all…
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