The Strawberry, Newcastle Upon Tyne

Basic football corner pub, a little unfriendly and out of the way

good old pub directly opposite the football stadium. Unsurprisingly most wall space is taken up by Newcastle United pictures but it isn’t too overbearing. On a Friday evening it’s just a pleasant locals boozer with a mostly middle aged and older clientele. One big room and apparently an upstairs terrace too. Good pint of Deuchars on this occasion.

Literally opposite St James's Park. Fairly basic interior with black and white checkerboard flooring at the bar. A pool table is located down a couple of steps off left. As to be expected there’s loads of NUFC ephemera on display including a well-done set of artistic impressions of players past on the joist. All NUFC fixtures shown and inevitably there’s plenty of big screens for sport. Vaping allowed. Loud Friday night chart music hurt my ears. Five ales on, a pretty good selection and Black Hill Three Quarter was in good shape. I can also vouch for the giant filled Yorkshire pud - mince, mash, dumpling, veg and gravy. Amazing value at £5.95 for huge portion and exactly what I required after a hard days crawling. Very friendly locals who I got chatting to. A good little place and much better bet IMHO than places like the Duke of Wellington and Hotspur.