The Sir Daniel Arms is in the northern part of Swindon town centre, just a few minutes away from the railway station. It takes the name of a pub which once stood nearby, named after Sir Daniel Gooch, who was responsible for identifying Swindon as the ideal location for Great Western Railway’s new maintenance depot in 1840.

The pub is a very striking building, with its huge feature window towering above as you enter. It’s certainly a very unconventional ‘Spoons but impressive and quite modern nonetheless.

The pub is split across two floors, with the spacious ground floor offering some more secluded seating areas decorated with bookcases. The rather grand staircase features a steel art sculpture and decorative golden balls, well lit by the huge glass window, and leads to the upstairs seating area with a second bar. Here the glass doors leading to the outside terraces supply ample light and decorative fireplaces disguise the pillars in the middle of the room. The bare ventilation system in the ceiling gives an industrial feel which otherwise takes away from a fairly charming and traditional Wetherspoon.

The toilets are adequate but nothing extraordinary, and you’ll have to travel upstairs to find them.

There is no longer any obvious distinction between a Wetherspoon and Lloyds No. 1 (though many Lloyds still have signs advertising the fact) but this certainly feels like a Lloyd’s. When we visited on a Saturday evening there was music playing, and there is a DJ booth and a small dancefloor with a mirror ball and lighting.