Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens Avis 

Lovely gardens but felt ripped off paying £4.80 for parking after paying £15.50 each entrance fee for god's sake your in the middle of nowhere and charging for parking is a disgrace

Parking charge new this year a big surprize. Very high price to enter as well.

The azaleas and rhododendrons were magnificent (we visited in May), and the tea room was fine. HOWEVER, why oh why when we have paid £60 for our car load do we have to pay another £5.10 for the car park with threat of clamping? This is plain greedy greedy greedy, and leaves me fuming. Why not add another £1 to the ticket price?

A comedy night is held at Leonardslee monthly and is an excellent evening out.
On Fri 23rd we attended and were amazed to find that attendees were being charged to park. This has not happened before and is totally out of order! ( members do not have to pay & I fortunately am a member). The evening is held in a room & food & drink can be purchased - there is NO access to the lakes & gardens & Leonardslee gain profit from the evening.
I wrote and complained as I felt the parking charge was unjust & in my opinion just pure greed!
Unfortunately Leonardslee have not even had the decency to acknowledge my complaint which reflects poorly on their customer service. I am really disappointed in their attitude.

Visited on 20 Dec 2023 to see the Xmas lights, which were beautiful (from my friend's photos). For me on my scooter, I had to give up as it proved too hilly, to the point where I needed to be rescued by a lovely young couple who helped push my scooter up the muddy, tree root infested hill to the cafe (huge thanks to them both), where I waited for my friend who brought me the photos. The owner can't do anything about the vertiginous landscape and has made the gardens beautiful but, DISABLED PEOPLE BE WARNED, THIS IS NOT A PLACE YOU CAN ACCESS. AT ALL. ☠

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you what Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens is like as we did not end up attending. We booked the Enchanted festival for 2022 with the Unicorn Ride, however, Leonardslee cancelled this last minute. We were given the choice to have a refund or wait until the event rescheduled in 2023 - we chose to wait. The event was then cancelled completely in 2023, we have received a partial refund and are still awaiting the rest, however, after several messages on various platforms, I have received no response, and they seem unwilling to respond to my messages. 0 support, 0 customer service.

Clearly a company that prioritises profit over anything else. Despite Met office warnings they decided to stay open &penalise customers that were unable to attend the event due to hazardous conditions

This place is beautiful, but if you are a wheelchair user do not even think of going, it is a death trap. It is an accident waiting to happen. We nearly went over the edge twice, the sharp inclines make it extremely difficult to have control of the wheelchair,we nearly lost our loved one over the edge. It was a horrible horrible experience and I advise anybody that’s booked that is a wheelchair user to please demand your money back for safety reasons.

Dreadful customer service. Lack of transparency including editing social media to remove critical comments. Stay well clear people...

Same problem as many other dissatisfied customers
Sunday night the roads were inaccessible to this event .
The management refused to reschedule the evening even though they had lots of free places available.
We tried ringing many times on the night to see if this event had been cancelled but no one answered the phones .
We have since spoken to the staff and they insist there's nothing they can do ,all they say is we should have been insured !
The only thing we can do is never return .
customer service non existent !! Don't care .

We had 4 tickets for 11th December 2022, at a total cost of £76. By the time we reached Lewes, the road conditions were treacherous and people were sliding off the road pretty much everywhere you looked. We decided to head back home and the 26 mile trip took us 4 hours. We even had to abandon our car and walk the last mile. We lost count of the number of abandoned and stuck cars we passed.

When we called Leonardslee to ask to reschedule our tickets, we were told "it's only a little bit of snow" and that because they hadn't cancelled the event they wouldn't allow us to reschedule.

When you look on their social media pages, you can see there were many people in the same boat as us.

Their lack of humanity and total disregard to their customers safety is shocking.

It's even worse when you compare this approach with that of Wakehurst, where they did cancel their event. The two places are around 10 miles apart.

All this on a day that the Highways Agency were advising against travel.

If you get to speak with Leonardslee Gardens staff, they claim that they are nothing to do with the Illuminations event. Yet, while I was conducting multiple conversations with them via social media, they started answering questions as if they were from "the other company."

If I was able to leave a zero star review I would.

Wrote a previous poor review on how bad and dirty afternoon tea was. Friends booked luminous lights for tonight and also birthday gift but bad weather their end and also ended up at our sude. I had a pile up accident and aching and friends explained that bad weather and about the pile up accident but they refused blank to allow to rebook. Lovely gardens but awful heartless people and I never had an apology from the dirty tablecloth, sugar pot etc, which was part of a 40th present from previous review. Spend better money elsewhere people. These people don't take on board dissatisfied customers. Clearly too wealthy to be bothered. They just wait for the next suckers to pop in

P£42 for the light up trail definitely overpriced. Advertising Christmas market that comprised of about 12 stools with at least 5 of them were selling cakes. £18 for 2 grim burgers & a few chips. Pretty poor all things considered!

We have visited the gardens on several occasions. It is a lovely garden but there are so many flaws. The customer service is shocking and staff are very blunt and rude. The no food or picnics is a complete joke! I would happily pay for a picnic or coffee and cake but they charge double prices of anywhere else for below par quality food. When I last visited I had to pay £7 for a pre packaged wrap which was soggy and did not taste nice at all.

In April I purchased illuminated tickets for a birthday treat with my family. I paid £60 for this pleasure!
I was not informed that this event had been cancelled as I was told. I only found out as I looked online for information. I requested a refund and was told it wouldn’t be a full refund as my booking fee would be kept. So I am now £4 down for an event that I wasn’t even allowed to attend.

Avoid at all costs! Over priced, poor value and bad customer service!

While the gardens are beautiful, their rule of no picnic is absolutely disgusting. I have recently retired, so making our own sandwiches is part of budgeting that allows for visits to nice places. This no picnic rule smacks of profiteering and mean spiritedness. It ruined what should have been a lovely day. I will not be returning any time soon.

I have visited Leonardslee 3 times now and recently become a member. I have enjoyed walks with friends and the colours in the autumn are stunning.
There could be a few more signposts on these walks as some of the paths go off the map they provide.
Leonardslee is quiet and tranquil- makes a lovely day out.
My only disappointment (and shock) on my last visit was the large unfriendly sign at the entrance:
“No outside food or drink is allowed”
“We kindly ask you to support our catering facilities”
I don’t know of any gardens that are not Family Friendly - promoting picnic areas.
Since a packet of sandwiches cost £4 - that’s an expensive day out for a family or anyone on a low income.
I think this will seriously put people off which is a great shame.

We wanted to celebrate our wedding there. A really small wedding for 10 people. I emailed them first and they said that they will come to me before checking with the wedding organiser and chef but they never did.
However we went one day in person to ask in the house and we asked to a young lady apparently in charge of the house that day.
We explained what we were looking for and we received an answer in a derogatory tone, in terms of what you want to do here really? And shocked that we dare to even asked her without having an appointment. No offering any guidance or advice or even showing the house for us.
We asked if we could have a look around and that was ok but the feeling that I did have is that wasn’t very invinting. Probably because it was a small wedding and there weren’t interested at all but from that date I won’t come back to that place again but it was one of my favourite ones in West Sussex.

The food at afternoon tea was beautiful, the pastry chef is a true artist. But the service was abysmal. We had problems finding where to go when we got out of the car in the car park! When we got to a shop we waited ages while the one assistant had time for us. She pointed the way but there was no one at the next desk! After ringing the bell the original assistant let us in. There was then a walk that was a bit too far for my disabled sister. She was pretty distressed by the time we got within sight of a house. The one and only sign post was misplaced and didn't point to the house. Eventually a couple of men with staff lanyards asked us if we were OK and said we should go into the house. Again one woman was at a desk and too busy to deal with us! We asked a passing young woman who showed us where to go. The room was lovely and we sat at open French doors. Eventually a waiter appeared and said, "Hello guys" and called us "guys" throughout tea. I had expected someone more polite! We were served with the very nice savoury course, but waited and waited to be offered cake. Eventually we called a waitress and she said they were waiting for us to finish eating. We had finished eating a long time before, we just didn't want any more. They should have asked us if we were finished - surely it was obvious! So eventually we got the cakes, which were beautiful, but had to ask for more tea and coffee. Not very impressive.

A beautiful location with amazing views and fantastic staff. For a special family birthday we chose a tutored wine tasting experience followed by afternoon tea. Our sommelier was the wonderful Emma who not only made us feel welcome, but who's enthusiasm and knowledge really made the experience special. The variety and quality of the wine is excellent - my favourite is easily the Benguela Cove Chardonnay (thank you Emma!) Afternoon tea was delicious and served in the most elegant surroundings, overlooking the grounds. To finish off a delightful afternoon we took walk through the woodlands and around the lakes - the new sculpture exhibition is really worth a look. Would thoroughly recommend Leonardslee for a visit - superb food and wine in a magnificent setting!

Bought tickets for the Enchanted walk for £36 for two. Wish I hadn't, we got a rammed walk with loads of other people to see two girls poorly dressed in fairy wings blowing bubbles. I have requested a refund three times because of the total rip off, and got told thank you for your feedback. I said I wasn't giving feedback I was asking for a refund. I called and got told you need to speak to the management team but they are too busy organising another event, and there was no one else they can put me through to. I am currently requesting a refund through the payment company I made the transaction through but the event team are disputing what I have said in terms of what was advertised was a rip off and not delivered, despite the fact other people have also posted the same thing on another review site and at two other people have posted on a social media site.