Wetherspoon – or Spoons as it is more commonly and affectionately known – is nothing short of a British institution.
While Spoons is not exactly winning any prizes with Gordon Ramsay, most Brits know that the pub chain can be relied upon for a meal and a cheap drink, but did you know it used to have a completely different name? Seriously.
It’s hard to imagine Spoons being called anything other than, well, Spoons, but like a lot of pubs, the pub – which has the official name J D Wetherspoon plc – was initially named after its owner Tim Martin.
For the first month of business, it was known as Martin’s Free House, which is probably why no one can remember the chain ever having a different name.
When you think about it, this actually makes a lot of sense when it comes to the history of Great British chains – just look at Morrisons, which is named after founder William Morrison, and Sainsbury’s, which gets its name from John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury.
However, as was later revealed on Spoons’ website, Martin obviously didn’t like the name and decided to rename the pubs after an old teacher.
The original Mr Wetherspoon taught the now-boozer mogul geography back when he was living in New Zealand.
The website states: “For the first month of trading, it was called Martin’s Free House – after its owner, Wetherspoon’s founder and chairman Tim Martin.
“Then, early in the new year of 1980, the pub was renamed Wetherspoon, after Tim’s teacher, who’d taught him at school, when he lived in New Zealand.”
While on the surface this seems like a sweet tribute to Martin’s old teacher, it turns out that it was actually more of a dig.
The Express reported that he deliberately chose that name because this teacher told him that he ‘wouldn’t amount to anything’.
Martin himself weighed in on his reasons for naming the pub after a teacher he disliked, and he told the Independent back in 1999 that the original Mr Wethersoon ‘was the least likely person to control a pub because he could not control a class.’
At this point, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Martin’s teacher had J.D. Wetherspoon on his class door, but he didn’t.
Instead, these initials are a reference to The Dukes of Hazzard character J.D. ‘Boss’ Hogg.
The more you know, eh?
Wetherspoon – or Spoons as it is more commonly and affectionately known – is nothing short of a British institution.
While Spoons is not exactly winning any prizes with Gordon Ramsay, most Brits know that the pub chain can be relied upon for a meal and a cheap drink, but did you know it used to have a completely different name? Seriously.
It’s hard to imagine Spoons being called anything other than, well, Spoons, but like a lot of pubs, the pub – which has the official name J D Wetherspoon plc – was initially named after its owner Tim Martin.
For the first month of business, it was known as Martin’s Free House, which is probably why no one can remember the chain ever having a different name.
When you think about it, this actually makes a lot of sense when it comes to the history of Great British chains – just look at Morrisons, which is named after founder William Morrison, and Sainsbury’s, which gets its name from John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury.
However, as was later revealed on Spoons’ website, Martin obviously didn’t like the name and decided to rename the pubs after an old teacher.
The original Mr Wetherspoon taught the now-boozer mogul geography back when he was living in New Zealand.
The website states: “For the first month of trading, it was called Martin’s Free House – after its owner, Wetherspoon’s founder and chairman Tim Martin.
“Then, early in the new year of 1980, the pub was renamed Wetherspoon, after Tim’s teacher, who’d taught him at school, when he lived in New Zealand.”
While on the surface this seems like a sweet tribute to Martin’s old teacher, it turns out that it was actually more of a dig.
The Express reported that he deliberately chose that name because this teacher told him that he ‘wouldn’t amount to anything’.
Martin himself weighed in on his reasons for naming the pub after a teacher he disliked, and he told the Independent back in 1999 that the original Mr Wethersoon ‘was the least likely person to control a pub because he could not control a class.’
At this point, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Martin’s teacher had J.D. Wetherspoon on his class door, but he didn’t.
Instead, these initials are a reference to The Dukes of Hazzard character J.D. ‘Boss’ Hogg.
The more you know, eh?