A Wetherspoon superfan has booked a cruise around Ireland — so he can complete his visits to all of the chain’s pubs in the British Isles.
David Bingham has ticked off 866 venues around the UK to date, including 14 in one day, and only has one left in England at Gatwick Airport.
The remaining nine are in the Republic of Ireland, where he plans to use port calls to continue his Spoons crawl during the 10-day excursion.
David, 60, and his partner, Una Cooper, who live in West Hallam near Derby, have paid £1,100 each for the Norwegian Cruise Line excursion.
‘We will be stopping in all the right places around Ireland so I should get it all done,’ he said. ‘If not I’m going to book a flight from Gatwick to Ireland asap, visit the pub at the airport and then go to the final ones.
‘I’ve got the drinks package and my suitcase is packed.’
The retired forklift driver took up the hobby in 2019 when Una found him a Wetherspoon directory on eBay, which led him to start ticking off his visits.
He has taken photographs of each venue he has been to as proof and has racked up 38 million views on Google Maps to date.
David is usually accompanied by Una, 63, and travels by public transport or car when the destinations are tricky to get to on the network.
One road trip took in 14 pubs in a day in and around Glasgow, when he mainly ordered non-alcoholic drinks to stay under the limit.
The devotee started in Ayr on the east coast before working his way north to the capital. On another leg of his Scottish tour he drove 483 miles, which is his record for distance in a single day.
The only venue in England left on his list is The Flying Horse, which is located after security controls at Gatwick, in a hobby that he estimates has cost him roughly £20,000 to date.
If he manages to visit all the pubs on the Emerald Isle after departing from Southampton next Sunday the loyal customer plans to still book an airline ticket and not take the flight.
‘It’s a hobby that I could talk forever about,’ he said.
‘We took a British Isles cruise last year which docked in Northern Ireland so we visited the three Wetherspoons there and we said if ever an Ireland cruise came up we’d book it.
‘Then the cruise just came up, it goes from Southampton all around Ireland with stops in all the right sorts of places, including two days in Dublin, so I should tick them off easily.
‘If you fly over you have to mess around or you have to put your car on the ferry or hire one when you’re there, so doing it from a cruise ship is fantastic. It’s like a floating hotel.’
The Spoons collector, who has a daughter, step-son and grandson, has previously flown from Stansted to Edinburgh and Heathrow to Manchester to visit the pubs.
The Royal Victoria Pavilion, set in a seaside Grade II-listed building in Ramsgate, is his favourite venue to date.
‘I have too many favourites to mention but the Victoria Pavilion is my favourite just because of the scale of it and history and the fact the building was derelict for years,’ David said. ‘Then Wetherspoons came along and saved it, which is what they’re all about.’
Other standouts include The Caley Picture House, a former cinema in Edinburgh, The Samuel Peto, a former Baptist Church in Kent, and the Opera House in Tunbridge Wells, another converted concert venue which was also a bingo hall.
David’s top Wetherspoon picks
The Royal Victoria Pavilion, Ramsgate
The Caley Picture House, Edinburgh
The Samuel Peto, Kent
The Opera House, Tunbridge Wells
The Picture House, Stafford
Man in the Moon, Isle of Wight
The Corn Exchange, Bury St Edmonds
The Winter Gardens, Harrogate
The Palladium, Llandudno
‘The thing I enjoy most is the excitement of going somewhere I’ve never been before,’ David said.
‘I never research what the pubs look like, I want to go there and say “wow, that’s fantastic”.
‘I love the old art deco cinemas, the churches, the theatres. Every one is different, there’s very few that have been built specifically as pubs.
‘We also love travelling, we rack up thousands of miles every month travelling. It’s a fantastic hobby that’s taken us to so many different and interesting places.’
The Burton Albion fan’s working list includes pubs which have opened and closed over the years he has pursued the hobby but he expects Gatwick to be his last port until the next launch.
‘Once I’d reached the last pub in the British Isles, in Dumfries, I was a bit tearful, because I knew I was getting close to the end,’ he said.
‘I guess us men just like to collect things. I think I’ll celebrate with a bottle of Heineken, as I’m a lager drinker and it’s my favourite drink at the minute, you don’t have to wait, it’s a pint of 650ml straight out of the fridge.
‘Then perhaps a pint of San Miguel. I’m not thinking about it too much because it’s not over yet, but it’s close.
‘Then as soon as the next pub opens, I’ll be there on opening morning.’
The pub chain has attracted some devoted ‘collectors’ over the years.
They include Alan and Agnieszka Forbes, who have ticked off 822 venues to date and also travel the world visiting airports.
Alan, 62, and Agnieszka, 44, say their journeys around the UK visiting new pubs are just as exciting as exploring the globe.
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