J D Wetherspoon is one of Britain's most popular pub chains. It was founded in 1979 by Tim Martin, who remains its chairman. With 794 pubs it is Britain's ninth-biggest chain, but one of only three with revenues exceeding £2bn; the other two, Greene King and Mitchells & Butlers, own more than 3,600 pubs between them. In 2025 Wetherspoon posted record sales of £2.12bn.
The chain is known for its economic populism. Even in London, where the average pint approaches £7, Wetherspoon will sell one for as little as £2.10. It keeps prices down through economies of scale. Since 2000 bar sales have fallen from 76% to 57% of total revenue, while food has risen from 18% to 38%. Free refills have made coffee and tea the top two sellers; among draughts, Pepsi sells most.
Wetherspoon pioneered non-smoking areas before these were mandated, offered on-app table service three years before the pandemic made such things banal, and is always quick to exploit a fad, from smashed avocado to flavoured gin.
Many of its pubs are housed in grand old buildings, with plaques on local history and bespoke carpets reflecting the area's heritage. In Maltby, a former mining town, the carpet combines pit ponies, mining equipment and motifs of the molecular structure of coal. In Durham it features the Lambton Worm, a local legend. The chain's balance of character and conformity was anticipated by George Orwell, whose 1946 essay on the perfect pub demands that they be "uncompromisingly Victorian" in their design. Orwell's utopian pub, "The Moon Under Water", did not actually exist when he wrote his treatise; several Wetherspoons now bear that name.
Mr Martin donated £200,000 to the Vote Leave campaign and spoke publicly in favour of Brexit before the 2016 referendum. Wetherspoon adopted pro-Leave beer mats and in 2019 removed several European drinks from its menu; Jagerbombs briefly became "Brexit bombs". This dented the chain's popularity among liberal, middle-class types.
The British pub industry has been in long decline. In 1870 Britain had some 115,000 pubs; by 2024 that number had fallen to 45,000, a new low. Rising costs, changing tastes and the covid-19 pandemic have accelerated closures. The average price of a pint has risen from £0.46 in 1979 (£2.30 in today's prices) to £5.17. Wetherspoon itself closed more than 160 pubs from its 2015 peak of 955, calling it "a tactical retreat", but sales per pub are up more than 50% since then.
Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.