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Nights out in your town - members recommend
Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 3:42 pm
by savvypaul
CN prompted me to start this thread when he talked about an upcoming trip to Newcastle for his friend's 60th birthday. I'm equidistant to Newcastle and Sunderland, so I'll also do a Mackem version at some point in the future, and, of course, a write-up for bonny Durham. But, for now, here are my recommendations for CN to have a canny neet oot on the Toon...
Let's start with the most important thing; beer! Plenty of cracking pubs in the city centre. Here are a few of my favourite haunts...
The Bodega
Proper real ale boozer on Westgate Road, a few hundred yards from the train station. Around 15 real ales and craft beers on draught. CAMRA awards coming out of their ears.
The Centurion
In the train station. An essential pit stop in either direction. One of the best 'railway' bars in the world.
The Forth
Located between the Centurion and The Bodega. Colourful and lively boozer with a hidden garden. Craft beers galore.
The Crown Posada
On the Quayside. Real ales, 'Houses of Parliament' style leather benches, stained glass windows.
Rosie's Bar
Close to St James' Park, and on the edges of Chinatown. You'll find me in the latter, but not the former. FTM.
If you have the time to venture a little out of the centre, then Ouseburn is one of my favourite places. It's an area that is popular with artists, musicians and artisans...and it contains three of my favourite boozers. Sunday lunchtime is a great time to come here, especially in the summer. It's also home to The Cluny music venue.
The Cumberland Arms
At the top of Stepney Bank. Live music upstairs on weekend nights, and on the lawn on Sunday afternoons. Folky vibe. Real ales and scotch eggs. It's also a B&B.
The Tyne Bar
Where the Ouseburn comes out into the Tyne. Live music and lots of outdoor space, including a covered 'auditorium' with a huge screen for the footie.
The Free Trade
Up the bank above the Tyne bar. Brilliant views of the river and bridges. A local's spit & sawdust pub with intelligent graffiti. Brilliant.
Later this week, I'll add some venues, street food and restaurants.
Re: Nights out in your town - members recommend
Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 4:18 pm
by CN211276
We have booked the Quayside Premier Inn so the Crown Posada is probably close and looks good. Rosie's Bar seems a good venue near St James Park. As Brentford is a long way away and not a big attraction we should be able to get tickets. Are any of the pubs near the racecourse where we will be going on Friday? Flying in on Thursday and back on Sunday. Train fare is ridiculous.
Cardiff is no longer a good venue for pubs with so many becoming trendy rip off wine bars. The Macc Lads song My Pub sums it up. I usually go to Wetherspoons, the Gatekeeper Tavern being the pick. A short walk from the city centre and not Wetherspoons is the Pen & Wig which has the best selection of real ales. Another mate has chosen that for his local 60th in August. His main do will be at Bath where there is racing, if the trains are running. No shortage of good pubs in Bath, unlike Cardiff. Our favourite is the Lamb & Lion which has featured in an episode of McDonald and Dobbs.
Re: Nights out in your town - members recommend
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2022 11:48 am
by Vinyl-ant
All we have in this backwater shithole is pubs to avoid........
Re: Nights out in your town - members recommend
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2022 5:08 pm
by CN211276
Vinyl-ant wrote: ↑Mon Jun 27, 2022 11:48 am
All we have in this backwater shithole is pubs to avoid........
That seems to be the case in most places. Very sad comparing Cardiff now with what it was in the 80s. An old famous pub, the Vulcan, is being moved to a museum. Cardiff is famous for Brains Beer. There are still some Brains pubs left but they are not what they used to be. The Canton mile used to be notorious but a lot of the pubs have gone now. You could probably complete it and finish fairly sober.
Newcastle seems to be an exception to the rule and it looks like we have made a good choice.
Re: Nights out in your town - members recommend
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2022 9:38 pm
by Vinyl-ant
20 years ago it used to be a good night out round here, this town and the next town over had a huge amount of pubs.
The next town over had 15 pubs on the main road.
We used to go to the furthest end to start, and stagger our way back down.
There were some nice ones, some rough ones, some ones to avoid unless you wanted a scrap, and some where the average age of the clientele was 103.
This town had 20 pubs. There was the same sort of spread of types, some good places to see turns and groups.
There are entire years of weekends i cant remember, and waking up in strange places like skips and bushes...... my first neighbour when i moved out recognised me because she had found me asleep in a skip they had outside their house one night. She had kindly covered me up with an old rug that was in it so i didnt catch a cold..... she had come home pissed that night too..
It was like the wild west, fighting all over the place, police sirens, watered down beer that made the underage kids feel like the biggest drinkers ever, pizza shops and takeaways to flock to when it was chucking out time, lockins until 6 in the morning. If you accepted all that and picked your places right to avoid the idiots it was brilliant
Now there are less than a third of the pubs in each town and only one place to watch bands.
Re: Nights out in your town - members recommend
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 6:00 am
by antonio66
Ant, I used to live in Donny and had great nights out there, but that was back in the early 80's and I was after all younger then. Do you remember 10p bus fares, probably not, but what a great idea to keep cars off the road. Now that I'm back in Grimsby, rarely go out, and I would only recommend two pubs in the town centre, Wetherspoons and the Tivoli Tavern, all the others seem to have changed their names. I can't remember the last time I went out on a Friday night in the town centre, must be 25yrs ago at least.
Re: Nights out in your town - members recommend
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 6:59 am
by Vinyl-ant
No to the bus fares, we didnt need to use the buses as everything was so close together but there were buses between rotherham and sheffield to a club called kingdom in sheffield from one called the zone in rotherham. That was straight across from rotherham nick so most people behaved themselves there.
Looking back at that time i shudder to think how much money was literally pissed away.
We very very rarely go out to the pub these days, havent for years now. Even then it is to 2 places, one sam smiths pub that is nice and quiet then a place that has bands on.
Re: Nights out in your town - members recommend
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 11:44 am
by Toontrev
CN211276 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 26, 2022 4:18 pm
We have booked the Quayside Premier Inn so the Crown Posada is probably close and looks good. Rosie's Bar seems a good venue near St James Park. As Brentford is a long way away and not a big attraction we should be able to get tickets. Are any of the pubs near the racecourse where we will be going on Friday? Flying in on Thursday and back on Sunday. Train fare is ridiculous.
Cardiff is no longer a good venue for pubs with so many becoming trendy rip off wine bars. The Macc Lads song My Pub sums it up. I usually go to Wetherspoons, the Gatekeeper Tavern being the pick. A short walk from the city centre and not Wetherspoons is the Pen & Wig which has the best selection of real ales. Another mate has chosen that for his local 60th in August. His main do will be at Bath where there is racing, if the trains are running. No shortage of good pubs in Bath, unlike Cardiff. Our favourite is the Lamb & Lion which has featured in an episode of McDonald and Dobbs.
Great recommendation list from Savvy, there are hundreds of bars in Newcastle and the place gets rammed at weekends.
If you staying on the Quayside you're spoilt for choice. A couple of popular places we like nearby would include the Bridge Tavern opposite the Vermont Hotel and if you want to walk across the Tyne Bridge, the The Central Bar on the Gateshead side is a great venue. Surprised Paul didn't mention 'Trillains Bar', right in the City Centre by the Library. A mecca for Metalheads where punters still wear lovingly patched/painted Denim jackets. There is also a thriving, expanding micro brewery community many of which are close by.
The racecourse is a few miles away so it's taxi/bus out to Gosforth for that one.
Good luck with match Tickets, the Toon have just released a further 1000 season tickets and there are 30,000 on-line applicants.
Re: Nights out in your town - members recommend
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 2:23 pm
by CN211276
Toontrev wrote: ↑Tue Jun 28, 2022 11:44 am
Surprised Paul didn't mention 'Trillains Bar', right in the City Centre by the Library. A mecca for Metalheads where punters still wear lovingly patched/painted Denim jackets.
We might well be heading there as the person whose 60th it is sings in a AC/DC cover band.
Re: Nights out in your town - members recommend
Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2022 8:22 am
by CN211276
savvypaul wrote: ↑Sun Jun 26, 2022 3:42 pm
CN prompted me to start this thread when he talked about an upcoming trip to Newcastle for his friend's 60th birthday. I'm equidistant to Newcastle and Sunderland, so I'll also do a Mackem version at some point in the future, and, of course, a write-up for bonny Durham. But, for now, here are my recommendations for CN to have a canny neet oot on the Toon...
Let's start with the most important thing; beer! Plenty of cracking pubs in the city centre. Here are a few of my favourite haunts...
The Bodega
Proper real ale boozer on Westgate Road, a few hundred yards from the train station. Around 15 real ales and craft beers on draught. CAMRA awards coming out of their ears.
The Centurion
In the train station. An essential pit stop in either direction. One of the best 'railway' bars in the world.
The Forth
Located between the Centurion and The Bodega. Colourful and lively boozer with a hidden garden. Craft beers galore.
The Crown Posada
On the Quayside. Real ales, 'Houses of Parliament' style leather benches, stained glass windows.
Rosie's Bar
Close to St James' Park, and on the edges of Chinatown. You'll find me in the latter, but not the former. FTM.
If you have the time to venture a little out of the centre, then Ouseburn is one of my favourite places. It's an area that is popular with artists, musicians and artisans...and it contains three of my favourite boozers. Sunday lunchtime is a great time to come here, especially in the summer. It's also home to The Cluny music venue.
The Cumberland Arms
At the top of Stepney Bank. Live music upstairs on weekend nights, and on the lawn on Sunday afternoons. Folky vibe. Real ales and scotch eggs. It's also a B&B.
The Tyne Bar
Where the Ouseburn comes out into the Tyne. Live music and lots of outdoor space, including a covered 'auditorium' with a huge screen for the footie.
The Free Trade
Up the bank above the Tyne bar. Brilliant views of the river and bridges. A local's spit & sawdust pub with intelligent graffiti. Brilliant.
Later this week, I'll add some venues, street food and restaurants.
A big thanks to Savvy for recommending the Crown Posada as we would have probably passed it by otherwise. As it was close to the hotel and the beer was good it became our base. The music was vinyl played on an old record player. It was from the 50s and 60s and added to the atmosphere.
The Newcastle website is a shambles so we could not get tickets. Ended up seeing Whitley Bay in a local league match. We took the attendance to over 400
It was very enjoyable and we were treated as special guests having travelled so far for a birthday bash. There are some good pubs in Whitley Bay as well. As the evenings wore on music became a major attraction and anywhere with classic rock, often live, blaring out was a magnet.
The racing did not go quite a planned as it was student evening and we could not have looked more out of place.
There were thousands of them and the racing was a side show to the awful disco din. A far cry to my student days with the boys in suits and ties and the girls in hardly anything. Treated to some sites when they were falling about drunk.
Can strongly recommend Newcastle for a party weekend. Just read the small print it racing is on the agenda.