#BeerGardenLeicester: The Best Beer Gardens in Leicester and Leicestershire

So, it’s the moment I know you’ve all been waiting for (scroll down for the top 10!). Way back on the 1st April I let you all know that we would selflessly be working our way around Leicester and Leicestershire, awarding points to pubs for the quality of their beer gardens according to my own criteria.

Do click the link in the paragraph above and read the criteria for yourself, but in short we were looking at:

Size and exclusivity
Early Doors (sunshine)
Smarts
Wifi
British-Summer-Proof
Furniture
Miscellaneous
Pub Dogs

And now it is time to announce the winners!
It was a much more closely fought contest than I imagined and I have decided that it is only fair to compare like with like and so here is the Top 10 of Leicester Beer Gardens, followed by the Top 5 Leicestershire Beer Gardens. Congratulations to all of the winners, and particular to our shock joint number 1’s in the city who will each be receiving a token of my esteem in due course. Click the link on each pub to revisit my review.

Leicester’s Top 10 Beer Gardens

1st place – Black Horse, Aylestone – 52 points
Joint 1st – Queen of Bradgate – 52 points
3rd place – 33 Cank Street – 44 points
4th place – Rutland and Derby – 43 points
Joint 4th – Cosy Club – 43 points
Joint 4th – The Western – 43 points
7th place – Orange Tree – 42 points
8th place – North Bar – 40 points
Joint 8th – Parcel Yard – 40 points
10th place – The Soar Point – 36 points

Leicestershire’s Top 5 Beer Gardens

1st place – The Bell Inn, East Langton – 49 points
2nd place – Old Hare and Hounds, Anstey – 46 points
3rd place – The Langton Arms, Church Langton – 43 points
4th place – Grange Farm, Oadby, 41 points
5th place – The Forge, Glenfield, 37 points

I hope this provides a useful guide for you all now the lovely summer weather is upon us! Just to clarify, I made up the criteria and marked each pub against my own system as fairly as I was able. They didn’t invite me, I visited pubs I could walk/cycle/bus/blag a lift to to that were recommended by people on Twitter, Facebook and face to face. We bought our own drinks in every single pub – not one person tried to bribe me! Honestly!