Ten Leeds bars for a pint, starting in the yards off Briggate

Theakston Best is £4.20 at Whitelock’s, the cheapest cask beer on any bar list in this guide, poured in a narrow yard off Briggate. Start there. Then this list goes from the Victorian rooms to the beer bars and out to the taprooms, with a price wherever the bar publishes one.

How we chose: Leeds’s heritage pubs, the bars and taprooms that local guides and Leeds CAMRA name for their beer, priced from each bar’s own current drinks list.

The yards off Briggate

Whitelock’s Ale House

Whitelock’s claims to date from 1715, when it was the Turk’s Head, and says it has been in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide in 41 of the 47 years the guide has been published. The house cask runs from Theakston Best at £4.20 to Timothy Taylor’s Landlord at £5.50, and the bar list doesn’t print the measure. Eat the black pudding Scotch egg with it.

Turk’s Head Yard, off Briggate · Theakston Best £4.20 · walk-in, tables bookable

The Angel Inn

A short walk up Briggate, the Angel is a Samuel Smith’s house, so everything on the bar is Sam’s own, and Leeds CAMRA notes it is the only Sam Smith’s pub in the centre still selling cask. Drink the Old Brewery Bitter in one of the two bare-floored rooms downstairs, and leave your phone in your pocket, because the house discourages phones and swearing.

Angel Inn Yard, off Briggate · prices not published · open Mon–Sat 11–11, Sun 12–10.30 · walk-in

Victorian rooms

The Victoria & Commercial

Kirkstall Brewery and Whitelock’s reopened this Grade II-listed hotel bar of 1865 after more than five years shut, and it now pours from eight handpulls and fourteen keg lines. Order Kirkstall’s Virtuous, or Midnight Bell, the dark ale from the Leeds Brewery range on the cask list. Beer prices aren’t on the printed list, but cocktails are £10, or two for £18.

Great George Street, by the Town Hall · cocktails £10 · walk-in, tables bookable

Beer bars

North Bar

North Bar has been pouring on New Briggate since 1997 and calls itself, with a shrug, probably the first craft beer bar in Britain. It’s known as much for its Bloody Marys as its beer, so have one of each. Prices aren’t published online.

New Briggate · prices not published · walk-in

Bundobust

By Leeds station, the bar at Bundobust pours its own Manchester-brewed beers across twelve keg and two cask lines. A pint of Peela, the first beer the brewery made, is £6.50, and the rotating cask collaboration with Thornbridge is £5 a pint, the better deal of the two.

Mill Hill, by the station · cask £5 a pint · walk-in, books for groups

Roland’s

Call Lane’s bars are mostly for cocktails, but Roland’s pulls a pint of Guinness that Leeds-List counts among the city’s most talked-about. Lager on the October menu is £6.30 a pint. Take it up to the sun terrace hidden above the bar; dogs are welcome.

Call Lane · lager £6.30 a pint · walk-in

The Smithfield

The taps at the front of The Smithfield belong to its owner, Crooked Brewing, and the house Smithfield Pale is £5.50 on the menu (£2.80 the half), with Guinness at £6.30. Drinkers and snackers have the front bar to themselves.

North Street · Smithfield Pale £5.50 a pint · walk-in at the bar

Taprooms and out of the centre

Northern Monk Refectory

Seven minutes’ walk from the station’s south entrance, the Refectory sits upstairs in the Old Flax Store at Marshall’s Mill in Holbeck, pouring the brewery’s newest releases beside a beer garden it calls one of the best in Leeds. Order Faith, one of the house favourites. The bar is cashless and dogs are welcome; the stairs are the only way up.

Marshall Street, Holbeck · prices not published · closed Mon, Tue from 4pm · book or walk-in

Kirkstall Bridge Inn

On the River Aire in Kirkstall, this is the Kirkstall Brewery pub where the whole cask range turns up, from Kirkstall Pale to Black Band porter. Go on a Monday, when a pie, mash and a pint is £15.

Bridge Road, Kirkstall · pie, mash and pint £15 Mon · walk-in

The Beck & Call

Out in Meanwood, the Beck & Call runs a happy-hour and student list with Virtuous at £4.50 and Amstel at £4, the cheapest Kirkstall pint in this list. It’s from the team behind Headrow House and Belgrave Music Hall, and it’s the one to take a family to.

Stainbeck Road, Meanwood · Virtuous £4.50 at happy hour · walk-in

Left out: The Highland Laddie on Cavendish Street, a drinker’s pub with a dining room, which gets its own entry in our dinner guide.

Checked October 2026.