The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal takes its name from the position of the Lord charged with possessing the Great Seal of England. This officer would use the Seal to create a wax figure which proved that documents were officially sealed by the monarchy. The connection to this particular pub comes from Sir Nathan Wright, who held the position in the early 18th century before becoming Lord of the manor at Oadby.

The pub is quite an interesting building, with its large overhanging roof providing cover for the outside seating area. It somewhat resembles a supermarket, and whilst little information on the history of the building is available, it seems that it stands on the site of an infants’ school which was demolished in the early 1980s. The facade is inviting, neutral painted with an abundance of hanging baskets spread throughout the outside seating area.

The interior is well lit by the glass windows at the front of the pub, which appear to open fully to combine the interior and exterior on those rare summer occasions. The décor remains quite classy throughout, with dark wood and a subdued colour scheme. The sunken seating area to the side of the bar contains a few cosy bookcase booths, and whilst the pub is not particularly large it does have plenty of seating.

Most Wetherspoon pubs have quite similar sets of furniture, which contributes to the identity of the brand and makes the pubs recognisable. Our visit to this pub introduced us to chairs we encountered across for the first time, which are worth mentioning only because they seemed to be absurdly heavy. Though not particularly new, no expense had been spared on these solid oak pieces.

Quite impressed with the pub so far, it was the toilets that unfortunately let it down. Though not particularly bad the design felt dated and, were it not for the occasional Wetherspoon logo, they felt like very generic, unrecognisable pub toilets – not a hint of the interesting and impressive designs the company is capable of.

Ratings (out of 5)

We both rate the pub based on three criteria; the building, the interior and the toilets. These scores are averaged out to give the pub its overall rating. You can read more about the rating system here.

Building: 3.5 & 3.0
Interior: 3.0 & 3.5
Toilets: 2.0 & 2.0

Overall: 2.83/5