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Wetherspoon (business name J D Wetherspoon plc) is a pub chain operating in the UK and Ireland, with headquarters in Watford, Hertfordshire. Founded in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company owns over 1000 outlets. The chain's pubs offer cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No. 1 chain and a modest number of Wetherspoon Hotels. The chain has become known for converting large, unconventional premises into pubs. Premises tend to be large by British pub standards, and use an open plan layout. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The chain began supporting cask ale when it was unfashionable to do so. == History == In 1979, Tim Martin opened his first pub, on Colney Hatch Lane in Muswell Hill, north London. Many of the other early Wetherspoon pubs were also in the western part of Haringey. The J D Wetherspoon name comes from one of Martin's teachers in New Zealand who could not control his class,〔(Refurb for Tim Martin's first outlet ) Morning Advertiser, 1 September 2005〕〔(The Real Pub Landlord ) The Observer, 3 March 2002〕 Contrary to popular belief, the Wetherspoon name did not come from the teacher telling Tim that he would never succeed in business. The name came from when Tim was running his first pub in Muswell Hill. "I decided to call it Wetherspoon's after a former teacher - not because the teacher in question at my primary school in New Zealand had said I would never make it, as some people think, but because he was too nice a fellow to be running our particular class and he couldn't control it. So I thought: I can't control the pub, he couldn't control the class, so I'll name it after him."〔(I'll tell you what's wrong with Wetherspoon's - it's run by a man named Tim ), Will Self, ''New Statesman'', 1 March 2013〕 In the early 1990s, Wetherspoon began a policy of routinely selling off their smaller or less profitable outlets, often—but not always—replacing them with larger premises very close by. There are now around 100 ex-Wetherspoon pubs, and none of the earliest outlets in the chain is still part of the estate. The oldest surviving Wetherspoon is the Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington, opened in 1983. Until the mid-1990s, when it began to expand across the country, most of the company's pubs were clustered around the Greater London area. In 1998, Wetherspoon introduced over-sized glasses and promoted the "full pint". This initiative was soon withdrawn, supposedly because customers were still asking for top-ups, but arguably because other pub chains did not follow their lead. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wetherspoons」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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