Is this Britain’s saddest hobby? We meet the man who’s travelled the UK photographing Wetherspoon’s CARPETS
Kit has captured 130 different floor coverings... here weave picked a few of the best
HAVE you ever taken notice of what the carpet is like in your local pub? No, neither have we.
But Kit Caless self confessed carpet connoisseur and author of Spoon’s Carpets definitely has.
Back in March 2015 when he was in Canterbury, Kent, waiting for a train back to London he had time to kill and popped into the Wetherspoon’s near the station for a pint where he spent a little too much time staring at the floor. When he was in another Wetherspoon’s a week later he noticed that the carpet was different and an idea was born.
Kit, 34, invited friends and followers on Twitter to send pictures of their local Wetherspoon’s carpet, he created a blog which quickly went viral.
Then the freelance interior design and architecture writer from Hackney left his long-suffering girlfriend at home and spent weeks travelling the length and breadth of the country to take pictures of...carpets.
Now he’s released a book about his bonkers obsession. He told us: “It became my whole life while I drank my way across the country visiting 120 pubs and taking photos of their floors - with the proper fancy camera I borrowed. I love a drink and was in my element!”
He says: “It was a pretty cheap tour too - Wetherspoon’s are known for their bargain prices after all.
“I had at least one pint in each pub. I visited 120 in total over five weeks and had plenty of fried breakfasts, burgers and burritos - my tax return is going to look interesting that’s for sure”.
Although most people welcomed Kit’s endeavours, there were unsurprisingly a few hairy moments along the way.
Laughing, Kit explains: “I almost got in a fight in Southampton, after I knocked over a lad’s pint with my camera bag. I offered to by this guy a replacement drink and told him and his mates I was photographing the carpet in the pub for a book. They thought I was taking the p**s and stepped towards me. I didn’t hang around to find out what would happen.”
A highlight was for Kit was staying in a Wetherspoon’s hotel. He says: “It was quite an experience to take a pint of Guinness to bed, watch some TV, then go back to the bar and buy another pint and take it back to bed.”
So out of all the carpets that he photographed, is it possible to pick favourites? “Absolutely!” Kit says getting all excited - and here he explains his love of each....
Number 1: The Queens Hotel, Maltby, south Yorks
“The carpet tells a really sensitive story of the community, including illustrations of the molecular structure of coal! I genuinely think it’s a piece of public art. Plus they’ve got two life size statues of local heroes the Chuckle Brothers.”
Number 2: The Bishop’s Mill, Durham
“It reminds me of those 90’s Magic Eye posters. I can lose focus, become the carpet, then think: what in the world are those worm-shaped things all about? Fitting for a pub rammed with posh students”.
Number 3: The Poste of Stone, Stone, Staffs
“It’s an incredible design with postage stamps, post boxes and royal mail insignia. Plus the lads who work there are lovely!”
Number 4: Sir Henry Newbolt, Bilston, west Midlands
“This is great for fans of Pacman. It looks like a pattern of distorted Happy Eater faces, never to be seen at the side of a motorway again.”
Number 5: The Golden Lion, Rochester, Kent
“This carpet proves that there is life on other planets. The interlocking hexagon design is so obscure it must have been designed by an intelligent extra-terrestrial species!”
Number 6: The Winter Gardens, Harrogate, north Yorkshire
“I love this carpet. To me it says this pub carpet is for those who think they are too posh for Spoons, but love a cheap beer. The light blues and jaundiced yellows have a regal sense and sensibility.”
Number 7: Turls Green, Bradford, west Yorkshire
“This carpet is brilliant. If you ever needed a conversation starter or wing man just look at it. Tell me you don’t see a game of Tetris!”
Number 8: The Wallaw, Blyth, Northumberland
“This one is famous - Ant and Dec made their stage debut here in the 1980s when it was theatre. Sometimes you can hear 'Ready To Rhumble' playing in the toilets”.
Number 9: The Denmead Queen, Waterlooville, Hampshire
“The pub is named after a locally made model of a single-decker bus - clearly designed by a small child if you look at the numbers of wheels on this carpet. Also, whoever told you boats didn’t grow on trees was a barefaced liar; the proof is in the rugging”.
Number 10: The Golden Lion, Newmarket, Suffolk
“Newmarket is the global epicentre of thoroughbred horse racing. This carpet shows you what kind of abstract piece of art you might be able to own if you ever win big at the races. That’s why I love it.”
And finally... Stansted Airport
But his least favourite carpet is at Stansted. Kit explained: “Aside from the fact its garish, I got pretty smashed in there that the carpet holds pretty bad memories.”
- Spoon’s Carpets An Appreciation by Kit Caless (Square Peg, £8.99) is out now