A south London university student on a quest to find the best Wetherspoons in the UK plans to visit and rank all 800 pubs by the age of 30.
Charlotte Toller, who is 20 and based in Bromley, is judging each establishment on criteria including cost and appearance, as well as how far away the toilets are from the bar, the quality of the carpet and general atmosphere.
She came up with the quirky idea alongside her boyfriend Finn Hutchinson, also 20, when they were enjoying a few drinks at The Richmal Crompton, their local Wetherspoon pub, or “Spoons” as it is more colloquially known, in September of last year.
Miss Toller is yet to review her local Spoons but started her quest by reviewing The Cordwainer, in Northampton, that same month.
“We realised that on the Wetherspoons app you can tick off all the ones you’ve been to and we thought, wouldn’t it be cool if we could just tick all of them off?” Miss Toller told the PA news agency.
There are 800 Spoons, according to the pub company, so Miss Toller, who is studying journalism at the University of Roehampton and also works part time in a pub in her local area, said finding the time to undertake the project has been a challenge in itself.
However, she has set herself the target of visiting all Spoons by the time she is 30 and has been documenting each visit on TikTok under the handle @charlsaurus, where thousands of people have become engrossed in her thoughts on the 13 pubs she has rated so far.
In order to pit the pubs against each other fairly, she orders the same drink – an Absolut Vanilla vodka and Pepsi.
“I find it crazy how you can order a drink and the price can be double or triple what you would pay in certain parts of the country,” she said.
It seems deciding on a winner will not be a simple task with both The Peter Cushing in Whitstable and The Rockingham Arms in Elephant and Castle both receiving a score of 8.5 out of 10.
“I have to be biased – my favourite one is The Peter Cushing in Whitstable, it’s very nice and my grandparents have a house in the area,” Miss Toller said.
Posting to TikTok, Miss Toller said The Peter Cushing also impressed with its clean carpet and beer garden, with points deducted because of the distance between the toilets and the bar.
She said the look of the carpets in each Spoons features in her ranking system because she received a comment on one of her videos saying there are different carpets in each establishment, which she said has been true so far.
On the carpet in The Rockingham Arms, Miss Toller said: “It’s not pretty but it’s not ugly.”
The pub ramped up its score because of its “great” location as well as the affordability of her drink of choice by central London standards, which came in at £4.16.
She added: “What I have noticed is the airport (Spoons) don’t have carpets so I always mention that in the videos.”
Despite no longer being a contender for the crown, Miss Toller gave kudos to the Swan & Castle in Oxford for its well thought out carpet choice, which has swans and castles on it.
On the other side of the scale, Miss Toller gave The Four Candles in Oxford a mere three out of 10 as it was hard to find a table and when she did, it was dirty and her beverage had “no fruit”.
The most Spoons she has visited in a day is six, in London, and she tends to fit in a pub visit, often with her boyfriend or friends in tow, if she happens to be travelling to a location where one exists.
“Sometimes people comment and I remember someone commented there is one in Nottingham, and I have a friend who lives there and was planning on visiting her so we went to the Spoons,” she added.
“Some people have also commented saying they are going to do something similar, which is great.”
Her most viewed video so far has been on her trip to The Swan & Castle which has been viewed by more than 350,000 people.
“I did not think I would ever go viral, I just wanted to have a bit of fun,” she said.
She said she feels Spoons has captured the adoration of many in the UK, especially Gen Z, as it is always there if you need a drink or venue to have a catch-up with a friend.
“I first went to a Spoons when I was 18 and everyone is counting down until they’re 18 so they can go to a Spoons and I think it’s because it’s fairly cheap, it’s a good place to go with your friends to play games or just have a chat,” she said.
“Even now, all my friends are off at university and we still all come back and meet at our local Spoons in the holidays.”
