Penderels Oak, Holborn, London

My favourite Wetherspoons. What differentiates it from many of the chain is the layout. With lots of different rooms and areas you never quite feel like you are part of the mass intoxication ritual that you can sometimes feel in some of the chain’s other barns…I mean pubs.

The pub is set in Penderel House, named after the bloke that hid Charles II in a tree (an Oak tree I would imagine) and helped him escape the roundheads. Morrissey would have approved. He went on to father 12 illegitimate children (Charles….not Morrissey). Princess Diana (and thusly William and Harry) are descendants from the aforementioned b’stards so Penderels Oak is fairly significant in todays Royal family. Bad family tree pun gracefully sidestepped.

Everyone knows what a Wetherspoons pub does, and whether you even get through the door will probably be decided by your view of what the JDW monolith does for the UK pub industry.

Penderel’s Oak is no better and no worse than any other Wetherspoons boozers. Bored staff serve just about drinkable lager at low prices in a cavernous area with nothing original to recommend it other than the 'no-music’ policy (and the food is dire).

If you’re desperate for a seat with a big group of friends (even on a Friday night) it might be worth a pop; but if you’re half-interested in your surroundings, then there are better pubs within a two minute walk.

It’s got everything you would expect from a spoons pub. So beer festivals (cheep beer) wine festivals (cheep wine) and weekday specials (Tuesday grill night floats my boat).

The downstairs bar is pretty quiet and there’s lots of nice little tables hidden away.

I work very close by and for many, this is the local watering hole. Not my style though and -even as Weatherspoons go - as mundane as they come. All that is missing to make this equal to the dingy, 'traditional’ pubs one used to associate with London, is the smoke…
With the variety of excellent pubs in the area, you can definitely give this one a skip!

I have to agree with Toucs here. Sure, it’s not the `nicest’ pub ever and is never going to win any awards. The furniture and decor isn’t the greatest, (although they do have a collection of novels and encyclopedia’s for drinkers entertainment). But I feel many of the other reviewers are missing the `attractions’ of this pub.

Many of the good and bad points about this pub have already been raised, but to start, the pub is very big and doesn’t get overly crowded. This means you can just rock in with a large group of people and you won’t be struggling to find space together, and you never have to cue for 4 hours at the bar! They also have a large selection of alcoholic drinks, loads of ale, cider, perry, single malt whiskey’s, some belgian beer, bacardi breezer’s etc. Basically, they have drinks to suit everyones needs. But combined with these facts the main winners are the fact it’s open until 1am and it CHEAP! A pint of ale here comes in at around £2.20, that’s over 80p cheaper than the Lamb (an award winning pub) just up the road. Over the average ten pint night that’s a saving of over £8! That’ll get you your kebab on the way home and a bottle of water in the morning with some change to spare. And also, one of the main reasons for ending up in this pub is that you’ve been drinking elsewhere and now most of the places serving good drinks at reasonable prices are shutting. So when you rock in here after 10 pints are you worried about the place being a `touch’ sticky or the odd chav or alcoholic hanging around? Well, I’m not, my main concern is getting the pints of 8% Westons cider in. £2.50 a pint? Yes please, 4.

Ew. Ew. Ew. I really hate this pub. More for its total and utter averageness than anything else. There’s nothing here to inspire, nothing to cheer, nothing to comfort, nothing to warm, not even anything to tempt you towards drinking yourself into oblivion. At weekends it’s empty and this area of town is deserted; but if you must drink in Holborn, much better to hop down the road into the Sam Smith’s (its name escapes me) which is cheaper (you better believe it) and has the added bonus of (shock horror) character and friendly staff. Something which will feel like room service at the Four Seasons after this absolute shell of a pub. I hate to be entirely negative - but in this case I’m willing to make an exception.

Been here a few times as its very close to my office in Holborn. Its the standard JD mix. Once you have ben in one you have been in them all.

That said the staf are nice and the food is ok and if you go 12ish you will get served quickly so you wont have to scoff your food down to get back to work inside the hour mark lol.

Standard Wetherspoon’s pub with good selection of beers and cheap food. People often scorn about these types of pub because of their decor and clientele. It might not look great, but it is cheap and serves a need. There are better pubs in the area, but if it is towards the end of the month and times are tight, this isn’t a bad option.

Afraid I have to disagree with phil and andrew here… The Penderel’s Oak is a pretty decent watering hole with a good range of cheap beers, no rubbish music and niceish decor. It’s not toooo chavvy either - just make sure you get a booth where you can’t see or hear any that might come in.

Always a danger to go to with any friends you might have who are fans of strong ciders… such as westons… I almost got pressured into having a second pint of it the other night.. that would have been a BIG mistake.