JJ Moons

		Around 1500 visits a day
E-Mail ROL
	Ruislip Online is sponsored by Fairweather Insurance Services

The time now in Ruislip

In the late seventies Ruislip Manor had but one pub, The Windmill, and that was dying, and has since died! On a Saturday night you would go in and mingle with the 20 or so others in there.....

Then somebody had a great idea. "Lets open another pub a few hundred yards away in what was Woolworths (or, finally, Manor Foods)". How we all laughed....

So it was that JJ Moons in Ruislip Manors was born, part of the Wetherspoons chain. And having laughed we all had to eat humble pie, for this pub is, without doubt, one of the great success stories of retailing in Ruislip Manor. Ironically The Windmill started doing better once it opened, with customers unable to get in to Moons walking there instead!

The Wetherspoons chain is well know for offering quality pubs with good cheap food, cheap beer and no music, indeed even the fruit machines are silent (even when they (don't) pay out!).

Drive in to Ruislip Manor and it is just uphill from the railway bridge on the opposite side to the station. There is no car park but there is local street parking and a pay and display next to it, accessed from Pembroke Road.

Loads. Regulars include Courage Best, Directors, London Pride plus others. Regular guest ales and once a year a beer festival.

Good. Ruislip Manor tube is just opposite and the 114 bus stops very nearby as does the 311.

Good, St George's Tavern, and Hennesseys are within two minutes walk. The Windmill, mentioned above, has been demolished.

My "local", I can be found in there about once a week. Lively place that tends to be a meeting place for folk, who then move on to other watering holes, so can have a large turnover of customers. Never quite has "locals" feel to it although there are quite a few regulars in the clientele, probably due to its size. The beer can be patchy in quality but is normally good, and the prices can't be touched locally. Very busy weekends, but can go quiet(er) after 9.30 on Friday/Saturday as the younger set move on to places with late licences. Food offered until about 9.00pm, usual pub type menu, usually good and reasonably priced. Stand it the wrong place at the bar and it can take a while to get served, where the wrong place seems to be wherever I end up.

I always laugh when I see the sign for the "Disabled toilet", surely it is a "Toilet for the disabled", a disabled toilet is one that does not work correctly...It is not alone in offering such a facility, many such establishments break loos and then offer them for use to those in wheelchairs.

I relocated to the States 2004, November from Hayes. I was a nightly guest for many years standing at the end of the bar, before you go up the stairs to the looooooo. There was Big Al, Pete, Len, Phil, Norman, Lesley, John, Brian, Sir Richard Branson aka Brian, and Vince and anyone else that dared to join us!

I had my bantering with the bar maids, Shirley, Kelly, etc. I must tell you how much I really miss the ole Pub. There is absolutely nothing here in my area to compare with Moons!!!!!!!! There is absolutely no beer to compare with "Summer Lightning". If you ever want to start up a Pub over here I'll be more than willing to run the place and serve up the finest beers in the states for Moons!!!!!

The company of the fellow mates and the liveliness of the Pub's atmosphere cannot be replicated.

My hat is off to your establishment----and employees!!!!

I must tell you I'll be there this June 2007 when we come over for the Goodwood Festival of Speed and will stop at Moons. Just so you are forewarned!!!!!

Once Woolworths, the skylight from the old shop remains, but is interesting because although I can't be certain I don't think there is sky above it. The pub, it seems, is a training ground for managers who then move off and manage their own pubs, and it seems to work well for this. Staff behind the bar seem to come and go, and then come back again!