A third-year has converted his dingy back garden into a beer garden

He spent £780 from his student loan


Henry Debenham, a third-year at Lincoln, has converted his concrete patio into a beer garden. The International Business finalist spent £780 from his student loan and bought fake grass, a bar and a picnic bench.

His six other flatmates helped him out over the course of the summer and they celebrated by buying £300 worth of alcohol to stock the bar. He said that he was bored of the surrounding venues at his university, so he was hoping to create his own one.

Henry isn’t actually going to sell any alcohol at his beer garden, but instead wishes to host Rowing socials as he is the senior coach for the club. In the future, he hopes to get a retractable roof to protect the garden from bad weather.

When we asked him how his landlord reacted to it, he said: “Our landlord’s name is Simon and he’s brilliant, he’s probably the best landlord in Lincoln. He was actually one of the first people to have a drink and he really loves it.”

“Over the summer it was just me living in the house and I do a lot of work with the landlords as I’m part of a start-up business here in Lincoln called StudentSmart [a money-saving app]. In our downtime, I agreed to do up Simon’s back garden and I worked all summer to make it into a beer garden. Then my friend Matt came along and helped me finish it off. The finishing touches were made when the rest of the guys arrived.”

On how his family reacted, he commented: “I sent my family a couple of pictures and they thought they were cool but my father’s a builder so he’s probably going to criticise it.”

Henry is hoping to stay in this house after graduating as he will be working on his business after university.