Shannon McGuigan

Summer is here and we all know what that means – beer garden time. There is nothing we Brits enjoy more than soaking up rays of vitamin D with a cold beverage in hand, but the question still remains – what city has the best beer garden experience?

Lucky for us, the credit card brand Aqua has collected data from across the UK to find the best place to go for beer gardens, calculating the average sunshine hours and temperatures to the average beer and soft drink price, as well as the number of beer gardens per city.

Southend-on-Sea takes the top spot

Taking the crown for the best city for beer gardens is Southend-on-Sea. With 238 hours of Sun per month during the Summer and drink prices that won’t break the bank, it only makes sense the Southern city came out on top.

Image Credit: Shannon McGuigan | Data source: Aqua

The average Southend pint and soft drink comes to £3.50 and £1.18 respectively. So, if you are looking for reasonable prices and lots of sunshine, a Southend beer garden is the place to be.

According to Google reviews, Southend’s three most popular pubs with beer gardens are The Old Walnut Tree, The Alex and Saxon King – so it may well be worth paying them a visit.

Thanks to its amazing drink prices, Wolverhampton places second in the best beer garden city race. The average pint here only costs £2.75, whilst soft drinks come to £1.15. Also, as the city has 281 beer gardens, you aren’t short of choice.

Dudley: Britain’s Beer Garden Capital

Although Southend-on-Sea is the best place for beer gardens according to Aqua, it does not have the most beer gardens in the UK.

According to data from What Pub, Dudley takes the title of Britain’s beer garden capital, as the city with the most beer gardens per 100,000 people.

The Black Country city boasts an enormous 199 beer gardens per 100,000 persons. In total, Dudley has 397 beer gardens despite only 199,059  individuals living in the city.

Following in second place is the city, famed for being the home of Oasis and The Smiths – Manchester. The Northern city has 165 beer gardens per 100,000 people. While, Portsmouth takes bronze, with 119 beer gardens per 100,000 people.

Wolverhampton: Home to the cheapest pints

But it’s not all about the number of beer gardens, the price of a pint is also just as important. Especially if you are conscious about the purse strings this Summer but still want to enjoy.

Image Credit: Shannon McGuigan | Data Source: Numbeo

While Wolverhampton comes second in the best beer garden city, it takes the number one spot for cheap pint prices according to Numbeo, with the average Wolverhampton pint price coming in at just £2.75.

In celebration of its cheap pints, why not visit some of Wolverhampton’s best drinking holes? According to TripAdvisor the top bars with beer gardens in the city are the Dog and Partridge, Horse and Jockey and The Two Greens.

One TripAdvisor review for the Dog and Partridge said: “Our first visit in ages, what a great pub serving great food at great prices by great people.”

Drink responsibly and enjoy the Sun

Summer is a great time. The sunshine is out, and the serotonin is flowing, and while enjoying a nice cold drink is most people’s idea of bliss, it is important to remember to drink responsibly and stay hydrated while enjoying the hot weather.

READ NEXT:

Feature image courtesy of kazuend via Unsplash. No changes or alterations were made to this image. Image licence can be found here. 

Shannon McGuigan is one of our Editor in Chiefs at Empoword. She is a trainee journalist studying the News Journalism MA course at Cardiff University and is also freelancing in her spare time! She enjoys crying about shorthand and going on long walks with her rescue dog.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *