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Here’s Why that American TikToker is Obsessed with Wetherspoons

Mallory Bartow is surprised with how people have taken to her praise of a U.K. pub chain on TikTok

Chris Stokel-Walker
FFWD
4 min readJan 6, 2020

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Image: JD Wetherspoon/Mallory Bartow

When Mallory Bartow set off for a vacation in the United Kingdom over Christmas break, she didn’t expect to find herself in the eye of a viral video storm.

“I was on Christmas break from school at Louisiana State University, and we get a whole month off,” the mechanical engineering student explains. “After I graduate and get a job I’ll be relying on PTO [paid time off], so I wanted to take advantage.” Her boyfriend, who had studied at Sheffield, had family and friends living in the U.K. They found cheap flights. It was a no-brainer.

They arrived into London, and travelled to Brighton, where they headed for a Wetherspoons pub. The chain, for non-Brits, is known for its cheap, reliable food and drinks, and often-stunning surroundings (the chain converts old banks and post offices, as well as local council buildings, into pubs in city centers).

They then travelled up to Sheffield, visiting Liverpool and Chester along the way. There, they decided to eat at Wetherspoons again, vistitng the city’s Benjamin Huntsman branch. “I was really, really excited to go back, and we decided to go the next morning…

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Chris Stokel-Walker
Chris Stokel-Walker

Written by Chris Stokel-Walker

UK-based freelancer for The Guardian, The Economist, BuzzFeed News, the BBC and more. Tell me your story, or get me to write for you: stokel@gmail.com

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