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Daily Mirror
15-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Full list of new Wetherspoon branches opening in the UK
Wetherspoon have announced six new branches of their popular pubs will be opening in 2025 - will there be one near you? With over 800 pubs, and over 50 hotels, across the UK, the chances are you may already have a branch of JD Wetherspoon on your high street. But fans of the British pub chain will no doubt be pleased to hear that more branches will be popping up in 2025. Wetherspoon have confirmed they'll be opening six new pubs, with a variety of interesting locations from a repurposed industrial site in West London, to a former 1920s cinema in a market town. Four of the locations will also include a pub garden area for outdoor drinking and dining. While the chain saw a rise in food and drink sales at the end of 2024, they took the step of closing several pubs last year, such as the The Spon Gate in Coventry. According to a spokesperson at the time, this was a 'commercial decision'. However, new branches have already popped up this year in locations including Marlow, Buckinghamshire, London Waterloo Station, and on the Isle of Man - the first 'Spoons to make it to the island. Wetherspoon have also gone into partnership with Haven Holidays, with plans to extend the number of branches in their holiday parks. The first on-park Wetherspoon opened last year in Yorkshire's Primrose Valley, and four more locations followed in 2025, including a branch in Haven's Devon Cliffs park. A spokesman for Wetherspoon confirmed there would be further Haven locations opening in future, but was unable to give dates at the time. The new 'Spoons branches will be set in a variety of interesting locations. The recently opened Walham Green, Fulham is set in the old entrance building and ticket hall of Fulham Broadway tube station, and railway enthusiasts will love the nods to its past in the train-themed décor. New branch The Sun Wharf in London Bridge may also look familiar to those who've visited a certain family attraction in the capital. For 39 years, the building was home to the London Dungeon, which moved to County Hall on the Southbank in 2013. While the horror-themed décor might have been removed, the beautiful brick arches will remain. Outside of London, new openings include the The Chiltern, Beaconsfield, which was originally a 500-seat Picture House. The cinema first opened in 1927, and entertained moviegoers for decades. It then became a Prezzo, which has since closed, and will be re-opening as a Wetherspoons in December. Full list of new Wetherspoon openings Walham Green, Fulham - just opened The Dictum of Kenilworth, Kenilworth - July 29 The Sun Wharf, London Bridge - September 2 The Sir Alexander Fleming, Paddington - September 23 Sigered, King of Essex, Basildon - September 30 The Chiltern, Beaconsfield - December 2
The Independent
06-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Churchill documents reveal D-Day landings boosted by import of ‘wonder drug' from America
Newly unearthed documents have revealed that the D-Day landings received a boost from the import of a "wonder drug" from America. Despite its discovery in London in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming, large-scale production of the antibiotic penicillin had struggled to take hold in Britain. Attempts to produce substantial quantities of medicine from the bacteria-killing mould had not been achieved by the start of the Second World War. Then prime minister Sir Winston Churchill became increasingly frustrated that Britain had not been able to produce enough penicillin in the preparations for the Normandy landings in 1944. Official papers released by the National Archive – containing handwritten notes by Sir Winston – highlight efforts to boost quantities of the antibiotic, with Britain eventually forced to import it from America. The documents were released ahead of the 81st anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. In one report on February 19, after the issue had been raised in the House of Commons, Sir Winston scrawled in red ink on a Ministry of Supply report noting the Americans were producing greater quantities: 'I am sorry we can't produce more.' On another paper, he complained: 'Your report on penicillin showing that we are only to get about one tenth of the expected output this year, is very disappointing.' Elsewhere in the same file he instructs: 'Let me have proposals for a more abundant supply from Great Britain.' With preparations for D-Day ramped up, efforts to deliver enough American-made penicillin for frontline military personnel soon became a matter of urgency. Decisions needed to be made on the quantities of antibiotic imported, how much to administer to individual patients, and how to get medical staff trained in time. Most British doctors did not know how to issue penicillin – until this point, doctors had nothing available to treat infections like pneumonia and many people died of blood poisoning after minor injuries because no drug existed that could cure them. Early in January 1944, Prof FR Fraser, the Ministry of Health's adviser on the organisation of wartime hospitals, wrote that 50,000-100,000 wounded could be expected from the Second Front. He proposed the Emergency Medical Services might need as many as five billion units of penicillin per month for this. Further documents show discussions on whether the antibiotic should be supplied as calcium or sodium salts, or in tablet form. Ultimately, it was agreed powdered calcium salts would be issued for superficial wounds and sodium salts for use in deep wounds. On May 24 1944, less than a fortnight before D-Day, Prof Fraser reported: 'Sufficient supplies of penicillin are now available for the treatment of battle casualties in EMS hospitals, but not for ordinary civilian patients.' Plans were made for casualties from the frontline in France to be brought back to coastal hospitals in Britain for treatment. A week before D-Day, on May 30 1944, hospitals were instructed to treat battlefield patients en route: 'In an endeavour to prevent the development of gas gangrene and sepsis in wounds the War Office have arranged for the treatment of selected cases by penicillin to be commenced as soon after injury as possible.' Injections of penicillin were to be given to them at intervals of not more than five hours and patients would be wearing a yellow label with the letters 'PEN'. The time and size of penicillin doses should be written on it, they were told. Dr Jessamy Carlson, modern records specialist at the National Archives, said: 'File MH 76/184 gives a glimpse into the extraordinary levels of preparation undertaken in advance of the D-Day landings. 'Only six weeks before, penicillin is just reaching our shores in quantities which will allow it to play a major role in improving the outcomes for service personnel wounded in action.' As Allied forces made inroads into Europe, restrictions on the use of penicillin for civilians began to relax, but only in special cases. In July 1944, Ronald Christie, professor of medicine, wrote to Prof Fraser to tell him: 'The War Office approves of American penicillin being used for medical conditions in service patients and for air raid casualties among civilians.' On the home front, demand for the new 'wonder' drug began to increase, according the National Archives. It was decided that penicillin for civilians should only be supplied to larger hospitals where the staff had been properly trained to administer it. Only in 1946 did it become fully available for the general public.
