A beer lover who will visit all 875 Wetherspoon pubs bought a plane ticket to complete his challenge – because the boozer is in Gatwick Airport. David Bingham, 60, has spent four years enjoying the “longest pub crawl in history” often travelling thousands of miles every month.
And he estimates his final tab for his epic mission is close to £30,000, including travel fares, drinks and overnight stays. He will celebrate the end of his 875-pub challenge when he sinks a pint at The Flying Horse on Wednesday.
The boozer is after the security barrier at Gatwick, meaning David has had to buy an airline ticket before being allowed inside. The retired forklift driver said: “The cheapest air ticket I could get was to Shannon in Ireland which doesn’t have any Wetherspoons but that doesn’t matter because I’ll have completed the challenge before I get there.
“It’s been a wonderful journey across Britain and I’ve visited so many places which I would never have gone to if I’d not been checking off the pubs. I call myself a pub-spotter because I like to go down my directory of pubs and cross them off one by one.
“I daresay it’ll be strange to finally finish the challenge but I’m keen to revisit some of the early ones I went to in the early days.”
David came up with his Spoons challenge after his partner Una Cooper, 63, bought him a £3 Wetherspoon directory off eBay. The couple took it to their local branch, The Observatory, in nearby Ilkeston, and David decided to visit every single one on the list.
He has challenge has taken him to 875 Spoons, including more than 40 which have since closed. David is often accompanied by tee-total Una, with the pair taking public transport to tick off the pubs.
As well as trains and buses, the couple took a hovercraft to reach the Man in the Moon pub on the Isle of Wight. Last month they knocked off nine more during a ten-day cruise up the West coast of Ireland.
David, who has one daughter, a stepson and one grandson, said: “I love going in Wetherspoon pubs because they are all different buildings. Many of them are old fire stations, post offices, churches and other beautiful sites.
“I call them boxes of fun because you never know where they’ll be. David often ticks off dozens of pubs every day and only has a pint in his favourite ones.
During a four-day trip to Scotland, he knocked off 46 boozers before celebrating with a pint of San Miguel and a bottle of Heineken. His favourite Spoons are the Royal Victoria Pavilion in Ramsgate, Kent; The Corn Exchange in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk; the Winter Gardens in Harrogate; and the Caley Picture House in Edinburgh. David now says Una will plan their weekend breaks, but he hasn’t ruled out another Spoons challenge in the future.
He said: “There are 57 Wetherspoon hotels across the country and Ireland and I’ve only stayed in one so I’m already thinking that’s just 56 to go.”
