Wetherspoons
J D Wetherspoon plc (branded as Wetherspoon, commonly known as Spoons) is a pub company based in Watford, England, operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Founded in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company operates nearly 900 pubs, including the chain of Lloyds No.1 bars, and a growing number of Wetherspoon hotels. Wetherspoon is known for converting unconventional premises into pubs. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Tim Martin opened his first pub in 1979 in Colney Hatch Lane in Muswell Hill, London. Many of the other early Wetherspoon pubs were also in the western part of Haringey. The name of the business originates from JD, a character in The Dukes of Hazzard, and Wetherspoon, the name of one of Martin's teachers in New Zealand.
During the 1990s, Wetherspoon began a policy of routinely closing its smaller or less profitable outlets, often replacing them with larger premises close by. In 1998, Wetherspoon introduced the oversized pint glass to promote the "full pint" This initiative was withdrawn, supposedly because customers were still asking for top-ups, but arguably because other pub chains did not follow its lead.
In 2015, Wetherspoon was made to pay a total of £24,000 for "direct racial discrimination" to eight individuals who were refused admittance to one of its pubs in north London based on what a judge described as "the stereotypical assumption that Irish travellers and English gypsies cause disorder wherever they go".
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