The church forming part of The Man in the Moon was once the Newport Congregational Church, dating back to 1848 when the Gothic-style ‘Great Chapel’ was built. The pub takes its name from the plot of land, which carried the same name in the will of a local man as far back as 1680. Since being sold in 2002, the church has been home to a number of bars, most recently the Temptations nightclub of Newport. JD Wetherspoon purchased the site in 2013, and opened its doors a year later following a £1.86m renovation.
The pub consists of two buildings; at the forefront stands the large and imposing Gothic church, and to the side a much more modern glass conservatory, set back from the main road behind a small beer garden. To the other side sits a separate beer garden, again tucked away from the main road.
The pub is split over two floors, with the bar buried to the rear of the building. The conservatory side of the building is well-lit, but serves mainly as a thoroughfare to the truly impressive aspect of the pub; the chapel.
The chapel retains much of its original features, with the apse now housing a wonderful fireplace where once a grand organ would have stood. The building is brilliantly lit, with plenty of windows around the upstairs mezzanine and triangular windows built into the roof.
The upstairs mezzanine wraps around the edges of the chapel, with dark wood balustrades matching the panelling of the recently-refurbished ceiling. The original hammerbeam roof, dating back to the 1840s, had been reinforced by Wetherspoon with the addition of steel beams. Whilst this might have taken away from the impact of the old and somewhat rare style of construction, it is great to see that the temptation to ‘modernise’ the pub with glass balustrades had been resisted.
Perhaps most impressive were the large throne-like chairs upstairs, intricately carved and not what you would typically expect to find in a Spoons.
Outside are two wonderful enclosed seating areas, with plenty of flowers and greenery surrounding them. The one to the right of the chapel, forming the main entrance to the pub, is partly covered while the one to the left is slightly more secluded, set back and towered over by the building to the rear of the chapel.
There was quite a disparity between the two sets of toilets. The men’s toilets, in the more modern side of the pub, were fairly ordinary and nondescript, prescribing to the standard Spoons design philosophy. The women’s toilets, however, located in the chapel side of the pub, were much more impressive and elegant.
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: 4.5 & 4.5
Interior: 4.0 & 4.5
Toilets: 2.5 & 5.0
Wetho Wanderers 