The Corn Exchange (Lloyds No1), Leicester

Facing the market square, the Corn Exchange is a large high ceiling Lloyds No. 1 with a central island bar that supports lots of standard and premium keg. I counted twelve hand pumps split between two banks of six on wither side of the bar. Theakston’s Old Peculiar, Oakham’s JHB, Wainwright Gold, Sharp’s Doom Bar, GK Abbot Ale, Ruddles and Wolf Brewery’s Granny Wouldn’t Like It were the cask options. It was busy in here during a recent early midweek evening visit, all of the tables either side of the bar were taken. There is more seating on mezzanine levels on the left and right walls. It was a bit too ‘drinking barn’ in here for my liking.

One large room with an island bar. Twelve hand pumps. Couldn't spot the speakers that you'd expect from a Lloyds outlet, but there again, I didn't look for them.

I'm surprised none of the reviews below have picked up on the fact that this one is a Lloyds. There was music playing at a fairly high volume when I arrived here late on a Thursday afternoon. As mentioned below it's a huge wooden floored room with an island bar and an upstairs area that I didn't look into. The bar has ten hand pumps which had the JDW Trio Of Doom doubled up, a cider, Wold Top Wold Gold, the Everard's International Defender and Ascot Anastasia Stout. This isn't a bad selection for a Lloyds but it all got a whole lot better when I noticed that the latter two were "Manager's Specials" going out at £1.70 a pint. Given the standard guest price of £2.35 I would have expected these to be £2.49. I went for the stout which was in perfectly good condition. The cheap pint was a bonus but probably shows that they struggle to sell the real ales here. I thought this was a better Lloyds than most but only average as a JDW.

This is a 2 floored JDW with an interesting balcony. It's quite a smart pub and there are loads of screens all around the pub. I called in on a Thursday night at about 9:30 and it was pretty busy, but not stupidly so. I got served fairly easily and watched the football showing on the big screen behind the bar. My pint was fine and there were quite a few guest ales available alongside the usuals. It's a decent JDW in my experience.