Pub operator JD Wetherspoon opened a brand-new pub at Stansted Airport’s new-look terminal, on 30 March. The Windmill, has replaced the Wetherspoon pub of the same name, which had been at the airport since May 2003.
The company has spent £2.7 million developing the outlet, located airside (after security) and just 50 metres from the old pub. It is Wetherspoon’s biggest airport outlet and is the only pub at Stansted Airport.
The Windmill, which will continue to be managed by Michael Wilkins, who has worked there since 2007, employs 175 staff and is double the size of the former site, offering more than 7,000 square feet of customer space on a ground-floor and mezzanine level.
The pub opens from the first flight until the last flight, with cleaning and re-stocking taking place during closed hours, effectively making it a 24-hour/seven-day operation.
There is a large windmill at the heart of the pub and a bar on each of the two levels, with the all-glass mezzanine level offering views of the runway.
The Windmill specialises in real ales, including an ever-changing range of beers from local and regional brewers and microbreweries, as well as craft beer and lager from around the globe.
Showcasing the best of British, The Windmill serves a range of English and Scottish gins, including Portobello, Sipsmith, Martin Miller, Hendrick’s and Broker’s, as well as Chapel Down English wines, from Tenterden Vineyard, in Kent.
The pub has flight-information boards on display, a re-charging area for mobile phones and laptops, dining booths and a see-through cellar.
Pub manager Michael Wilkins said: “The new-look pub is a fantastic outlet and part of the multimillion-pound refurbishment of the airport. We look forward to welcoming new and familiar faces and expect to serve more than one million travellers a year.”
The pub name refers to a windmill which stands nearby, in what was the ancient hamlet of Cooper’s End, two miles northeast of the airport.
Built by Joseph Linsell and his wife in 1787, it was last worked in 1910, for crushing oats; during World War II, the Boy Scouts took over the mill as their HQ. They left in 1963 and, a year later, it was opened to the public for the first time.
The mill was scheduled as an Ancient Monument in 1952 and is a grade II listed building.