Milton Keynes is perhaps the most unique city in the England. Famous globally for its ‘birth’ in the 1960s, its story is incredibly interesting from an urban design perspective, though many of the towns and villages which make up the borough actually date back to the Bronze Age.

This was our first visit to Milton Keynes, and though we couldn’t help but admire its individuality, it was actually the city’s three Wetherspoons which we were here to visit. So we navigated its many roundabouts, checked into our hotel and prepared ourselves for a relaxed evening sampling the city centre’s Spoons.

Wetherspoons – MK9 1EA

Click here to read our full review of Wetherspoons.

Just a short walk away from our hotel was Wetherspoons, our first stop of the evening and one of a handful of eponymous pubs in the chain. This one inhabits an modern-feeling building from the 1990s, its glass walls surrounded by steel pillars which hold up its impressive wavy roof.

Thanks to these tall glass walls the pub feels light and airy inside, and its tall ceiling gives it a spacious feel. Plenty of tables around the central bar, with booths to either side for some more secluded seating and a large, albeit quite plain, seating area to the front. On our visit temperatures were touching 30 degrees, though the pub felt comfortable with blinds covering the windows and air conditioning preventing the pub from becoming too much of a greenhouse.

Whilst the toilets were large and clean they were very basic in their design, lacking the individuality that JD Wetherspoon often instils in their bathrooms.

Overall score: 3.17/5

The Moon Under Water – MK9 3NN

Click here to read our full review of The Moon Under Water.

A short walk took us across the centre of Milton Keynes and towards Xscape, the most domineering piece of the city’s skyline. Here we found The Moon Under Water, another pub which shares its name with quite a few others in the chain’s portfolio. Quite uniquely, however, this pub has two entrances; one to the exterior of the Xscape complex and one inside.

The pub is quite spacious inside, its long and thin layout split into a handful of distinct seating areas. The pub carries on a somewhat mismatched theme, hinting towards both the moon and water contained in its name, but also utilising a variety of shades of blue, red and yellow throughout.

The toilets are quite large with a modern design, and we found the door handles (which seem to be crystallised handprints) surprisingly interesting.

Most impressive of all, however, was the large and somewhat mysterious sculpture mounted to the ceiling towards the rear of the pub. As light features go, this is certainly one of the most interesting we’ve come across, though despite a lot of head-scratching we still couldn’t decide what it was. Answers on a postcard, please!

Overall score: 2.75/5

Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party – MK2 2ED

Click here to read our full review of Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party.

The next morning we headed south of the centre of Milton Keynes and towards Bletchley. Though it’s certainly most famous for Bletchley Park, it was Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party that we were here to visit. The pub is a wonderfully symmetrical building, originally a public house known as The Bletchley Arms before JD Wetherspoon took over the venue in 2017. Out front is a huge seating area, and despite the impressiveness of the building from the exterior, it doesn’t quite do the size or scale of the pub justice.

The interior is huge, with a rather traditional area at the front of the pub leading through to the bar, which is flanked by a delightful glass conservatory and and extending into a large open area, traditionally decorated with a fireplace and an open kitchen. The 2017 refurbishment has given the pub a warm and welcoming feel, with the exposed brick and the neutral tones making it one of the nicest Spoons we’ve visited to date.

To the rear is a large beer garden, enclosed by trees and featuring a number of huts, each one a homage to the famous huts of nearby Bletchley Park.

The pub contains dozens of subtle hints at the history of not only Bletchley Park, but the local area itself. From a WWII-era Enigma machine in a display case at the entrance of the pub to the tailgate of a London Brick Co. lorry proudly hanging on the wall of the conservatory, the venue feels almost as much like a museum as it is a pub!

Upstairs is a prime example of the brilliant design often found in Wetherspoon toilets. The design is subtle but classy, and even here the connection to Bletchley Park is obvious, with a large cinema poster of the Alan Turing biopic, The Imitation Game, hanging proudly on the wall.

Overall score: 4.58/5

It’s impressive to find such a variety of Wetherspoons in Milton Keynes; Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party is a more ‘traditional’ pub, boasting proudly of the area’s history in a warm and welcoming environment. Wetherspoons has a slightly industrial feel to it and, just like the city itself, stands unique; we’re about 700 pubs short of visiting every pub in the chain, but we don’t expect to encounter a building which looks like this again. The Moon Under Water has the familiar feel of other Spoons we’ve visited in entertainment complexes and shopping centres, but it also has a rather watery design to it; it’s surprisingly easy to lose track of where you are and feel as though the pub is located at the seaside, which is perhaps a testament to its theming.

Milton Keynes average score: 3.5/5