Review

You'll be as surprised as I am to learn there is actually a word called 'Lollardry' (or Lollardy), and you'll be as equally enthralled (or disinterested) to learn that Lollardry was a movement for ecclesiastical reform, which undoubtedly weakened the English medieval church's hold on the people. Sir John Oldcastle was a leader of Lollardry and friend of Henry V who was condemned for heresy in the early 15th century, escaped from the Tower of London, was recaptured and executed by hanging over a slow fire.

Some people would consider execution by hanging over a slow fire a much more preferable experience than setting foot in a JD Wetherspoon establishment, but if you're a hardened elbow-bender, a surveyor of the highway, a piss-head, you'll be familiar with the Wetherspoon experience from which the Sir John Oldcastle pub in Farringdon deviates little. What this pub is called is difficult to discern from outside, with ‘Free House’ being the most likely option for its name.

In Danny Boyle's movie 28 Days Later, London is portrayed as a deserted, desolate city, abandoned following a viral outbreak - a familiar sensation for anybody walking through the City at a weekend. Trying and find a pub that’s open on a Saturday or Sunday in the EC1 postcode area is fraught with disappointment. What a joy, however, to be in the Farringdon area, around the station, and discover that the ever-loyal JD Wetherspoon chain have decided to keep the Sir John Oldcastle on Farringdon Road open. Wandering in from the forsaken streets immediately identifies where all the people are hiding – in here!

A vast pub with an entire glass façade, providing an excellent view of life, or lack of it, outside. As with all Wetherspoon pubs, the clientele is a combination of diners, couples, drunks and bums, and the Sir John Oldcastle seems to be frequented by a horde of London cabbies, arguing the toss of how several vital seconds can be shaved off the time it takes driving between A and B by cutting corners (literally), jumping red lights, disobeying the Highway Code, being bullish towards other road users, and mowing down pedestrians (the last survivors of the deadly Virus, thus making homo-sapiens extinct).

JD Wetherspoon fixtures and fittings are very much in evidence, with a paltry display of old books in the large no-smoking, family area, and weirdly arranged urinals in the used-beer room: two pissers on one wall and two pissers on the opposite wall. During the week the standard of clientele increases exponentially with local office workers, City boys/girls and quality women, and to give the place some class, JD Wetherspoon have added a smattering of Stained Glass into the windows.

A beacon on the horizon for people stranded in Farringdon who are desperate for a beer, ideal for those whose Tube has crashed at nearby Chancery Lane and need a cheap, calming drink and meal.

Review by mr_psm