<Tr> <Th> Number of employees </Th> <Td> 37,000 (2017) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk </Td> </Tr> <P> JD Wetherspoon plc, branded as Wetherspoon, is a pub company in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland . Founded in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company owns just under 1,000 outlets, including the chain of Lloyds No. 1 bars and the chain of Wetherspoon hotels . With its headquarters in Watford, Wetherspoon is known for converting unconventional premises into pubs . The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index . </P> <P> Tim Martin opened his first pub in 1979, in Colney Hatch Lane in Muswell Hill, north London . Many of the other early Wetherspoon pubs were also in the western part of Haringey . The name of the business originates from JD, a character in The Dukes of Hazzard, and Wetherspoon, the name of one of Martin's teachers in New Zealand . Martin said, "I decided to call it Wetherspoon's after a former teacher--not because the teacher in question at my primary school in New Zealand had said I would never make it, as some people think, but because he was too nice a fellow to be running our particular class and he couldn't control it . So I thought: I can't control the pub, he couldn't control the class, so I'll name it after him ." </P>

How many wetherspoons are there in the uk
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