The Old Horse, Leicester

A coaching inn in days gone by also once serving the former racecourse (now Victoria Park) on the opposite side of the road. Significantly opened out inside at some stage, but the various seating and dining areas are still distinct so it doesn't feel as large as it really is. All parts have been refurbished in a smart semi-traditional style, with those around the main counter being lighter than the smaller bar on the right-hand side of the entrance and another room beyond. For a city pub (even if not exactly in the centre), a surprisingly large beer garden is available at the back. As an Everards house, it was no surprise to find Tiger, Sunchaser and Old Original (£4.80) being served from the eight handpumps, along with Lincoln Green's Archer as a guest beer and four ciders. Several of the brewery's regular and small-batch craft keg beers are also available.

Reasonably large Everard's pub about a 10-minute walk uphill from the train station and overlooking Victoria Park. The first thing that caught my eye when approaching the pub was the large black sign to the right-hand side of the entrance advertising a Beer & Cider Room. Sure enough, the room to the right of the entrance has access to the bar and had a large number of handpulls all sporting different ciders. The last time I visited here in 2012, they only sold Black Dragon cider. The presence of 8 different ciders certainly seems an improvement since then. Ciders on were Aston Manor King's Apple & Friel's, Weston's Old Rosie, Broadoak Moonshine & Perry, Lilley's Gladiator & Thatcher's Stan's Big Apple. Off to the left is a much larger sub-divided room also with access to what is an L-shaped bar. Where the real cider range has expanded, the real ale range has reduced. There were 6 ales for my visit in 2012. This time, the regular beers from Everard's (Tiger, Sunchaser & Old Original) only had one guest beer to supplement them. This was Lister's Best Bitter. A CAMRA discount is offered on the ales and the cider. The main bar area has a rather unusual feature, having a coffin for the table, as mentioned by Steve C below. Beyond this room, steps lead down to an outdoor courtyard area where the toilets can be located, along with table football and an air hockey table. There is a large pirate peering over the yard from the roof above, whilst a couple of skeletons can also be spotted. Beyond the courtyard, there is a very long garden which had a couple of fake rugby posts erected. The garden wasn't quite large enough for a pitch and the posts weren't full height. I guess they were vestiges of their Six Nations promotions earlier in the spring. Back inside, there was food available including cobs and rotisserie chicken in a heated cabinet at one end of the bar. I quite like this place and am likely to return again in several more years time. Although there are not too many other decent pubs nearby, making the uphill walk from the station less worthwhile.

The Old Horse is a large Everards pub just on the edge of how far I could be bothered to walk from the city centre. There are two entrances, one from the car park to the left and one from the front where there are picnic tables under a couple of jumbrellas. The front entrance leads to a wooden floored bar area with seating and a serving counter on the rear wall that supports eight hand pumps that were all drawing cask cider. To the right is more seating and some Six Nations bunting advertises the rugby. This area of the pub feels a bit like an Irish bar with lots of dark wood everywhere. There is some seating in the window to the left of the entrance where, oddly, a coffin is used as a table. The bar counter runs down the right towards the rear facing high tables to the left and a partition wall that houses a burner. At the rear is open plan seating. There are two banks of four hand pumps on this longer bar counter. Five were unused leaving Sunchaser, Old Original and Tiger as the cask ale choices. Standard and premium keg were also available. The service was friendly and I left thinking that the walk to visit was worth it.

Official site of The Old Horse - www.oldhorseleicester.co.uk

Official site of The Old Horse - www.oldhorseleicester.co.uk