Platform Bar, Hexham

A very small bar on the Carlisle bound platform and only accessed via the platform, there are no ticket barriers. About 25 feet square there’s a counter in the rear left corner next to a storage/ kitchen area, it does bacon and sausage buns plus coffee. I wasn’t there for anything but beer so had a choice of three beers from First & Last brewery or a Lillys Rhubarb cider on the five hand pumps. The rest of the space has un-upholstered benches round the walls at Britannia tables, there’s a few bar stools as well. Decor is of course railway dominated, mainly advertising posters and photos. There's a nice (repro) fireplace with a railway clock above inscribed with the bars name. It is Good Beer Guide listed and the beer was fine but only a good. Toilets are the station ones along the platform.

A nice little recreation of a station refreshment room with simple furnishings inside and a few tables on the platform. The five handpumps included 2 from Loch Lomond, Consett Steeltown and Happydaze Welsh cider. Very useful if travelling by train obviously, but not really worth a special trip.

Neat little refreshment room/micropub on Platform 2 and easily accessible from the main station entrance. Opening in 2019 and it’s clearly a modern interior but a fair attempt at a bit of tradition - cream and blush red trim plus an antique till and the inevitable railway memorabilia on the walls. Note that the toilets are at the other end of the platform. Room for no more than 30 so a squeeze on a busy Saturday I’d imagine. A bit slouchy on the service front and a fairly flat atmosphere, what with a quiet room's ambience interrupted by a tinny local radio's output from the kitchen. Three cask over five with a cider also, sourced from small local breweries. My Muckle Tickle was fair, if a bit aged and just about got a GBG pass (NBSS 3). Probably didn’t see it at its best, but staff make the atmosphere in these kind of places when they’re quiet. 6.5