Jubilee BBQs: Data Reveals BEST UK City for Garden Parties

The Best UK Cities for a Jubilee BBQ Party

• Bath comes in top for both meat and meat-free BBQs thanks to the city’s larger than average garden size, high core sunlight hours and favourable summer temperatures

• Just searching for good weather? Reading takes the hot spot with an average British summertime temperature of 24 degrees and a total of nine sunlight hours – the highest of all cities

• The largest gardens for entertaining are found in Bath with an average garden size of 204 sq.m – nearly 13 times the size of London gardens

• If you’re after a top-quality meat BBQ, Brighton takes the crown with a total of 20 butchers in the city centre (or 14 per 100,000 people)

The British weather may be unpredictable – but one thing that is predictable is Brits’ love for BBQs. This weekend’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations will see households across the country holding outdoor celebrations – with summer BBQs likely to be high on the agenda. But where in the UK is set to host the very BEST garden party feast?

To answer that question, Next Home and Garden has looked at a range of different metrics to declare which UK cities are predicted to host the best Platinum Jubilee garden party BBQs this weekend.

Metrics include: sunlight hours, average summer temperature, average garden size, number of butchers and search volume for BBQ-related terms. To find the top cities for veggie BBQs, the index used all former metrics but instead of butchers looked at number of veggie supermarkets and search volume was for veggie specific terms.

The Top 10 UK BBQ Cities Overall

Bath in Somerset takes the top spot overall in list of the top 10 cities for backyard BBQs scoring well throughout each data point. There is however one area the city truly outdoes all others; the largest gardens seen in the full study were found in Bath, where the average garden reaches a very sizeable 204 sq.m. London, on the other hand has the smallest gardens of the study at an average size of just 16 sq.m.

Coming in second on the list is Brighton, with an extra hour of sunlight (on average) in the summer months and a slightly higher summer temperature – perfect for late-night BBQs. Brighton also exceeded Bath when it comes to number of butchers with a total of 20 in the city centre or 14 per 100,000 people. The city just misses out on the top spot due to its much smaller average garden size of 23 sq.m.

The Scottish city of Inverness comes 10th overall when it comes to backyard BBQs due to its lower summer temperatures, fewer hours of sunlight and just two butchers in the city centre. But the city fares well when it comes to garden size with an average of 141 sq.m placing it third in the study when for garden size. 

Veggie and Vegan Capitals: The Top 10 UK Cities for Meat-Free BBQs

When it comes to meat-free BBQs, Bath once again takes the top spot with a total of 10.6 vegan supermarkets per 100,000 people – that’s almost 10 times as many options for residents than any other city.

Birmingham and Oxford take the second and third spots respectively but considering the search demand for meat-free BBQ products, both could do with more specialised supermarkets opening in the areas.

London boasts the most vegan supermarkets overall with a generous 43 vegan supermarkets in the capital. However, the city misses out on making it into the top 10 of both rankings due to its much smaller than average garden sizes. And while numbers look high for metrics like search volume and the number of vegan supermarkets, the high population of the city means that it’s still not enough to cater for its bustling population of close to eight million.

A spokesperson at Next said: “What better way to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee than with a Great British BBQ? We’re anticipating British BBQs to be bigger than ever this summer, so wanted to research which cities are best for BBQs. By including a meat-free ranking too, we hope that our research encourages everyone to enjoy laughs, drinks and good food outside with family and friends – no matter what their dietary requirements.”