#beergardenleicester: The Black Horse, Aylestone

Well, I had closed my #beergardenleicester testing, but I’ve not had a minute to go and buy a trophy for the winner, and so I’m sorry to have left you all hanging on waiting for the results! In the meantime, I’m sneaking in a last minute entry from The Black Horse in Aylestone. We went there for the fabulous #beerclublive event with +Everards Brewery and @beerforthat and I couldn’t resist taking some notes and a couple of snaps of their garden to share with you.

Size and exclusivity

This is a great sized garden – there’s both a large grassed area and a large tarmaced space with a great deal of furniture, decorative borders and plants on offer – more than enough to accommodate even the largest crowd on a summer’s day.

Early Doors

Fabulous after work sun potential here – the garden is very open and so you can definitely find yourself a bright spot to let the cares of the world drift away.

Smarts

The terraced area isn’t so beautiful on its own, but the rest of the garden more than makes up for it – lovely raised beds with edible plants, herbs on the tables, nicely established borders – it’s an incredibly pleasant place to wile away some time! Extra points for the ‘bike art’ hung on the fence too!

Wifi

Good wifi coverage in the garden, although I’ll admit I didn’t go right to the back as it was a bit rainy!

British-Summer-Proof

Not good if more than 3 people want shelter from the storm, but there is a little wooden shed, I mean shelter, by the back door. Keep you dry and you can cosy up with the regulars!

Furniture

A mixture of picnic tables and cafeteria tables and chairs, all in good nick and well maintained – who could ask for more!

Extra points also awarded for the bike racks which have been built into the garden, which appear to be surprisingly rare at our nation’s pubs!

Miscellaneous

Bonus points for having an outdoor bar thingy-bob-doody and also all of the lovely edible plants all around including the excellent ‘aromatic corner’ of the garden. So many delightful touches that I feel I may sense the touch of a female licensee?

Pub Dogs

Well, here we are. Pub dog? Yes, there was a lovely spaniel who had been playing in the canal and was a bit pongy but incredibly lovely. But that’s not where the real points are.

*** PUB CAT ALERT ***

Yes, I didn’t think we’d get one, but right at the last minute a local kitty came ambling up to us for headbutts and purring. I was totally smitten and thus the holiest points of all were awarded to The Black Horse.

Edit: 04/07/15 – I’ve decided to add physical accessibility notes to each of the #beergardenleicester reviews. The Black Horse’s garden is accessible throughout except for one small step up to the grassed area.