Free Trade Inn, Newcastle Upon Tyne

Excellent beer pub, currently with great views and well worth a visit. Traditional local that seems to be thriving

an L shaped single roomed ale house/dive bar a short walk from the city centre. Has a free jukebox, pickled eggs on the bar, five good ales on and just a pleasant drinkers atmosphere. seating is mostly wooden benches and stools. Painted largely in orange and it’s cracking and peeling everywhere you look. The toilets are also shocking. Some would probably say it needs sprucing up but it is a good pub. Will soon be losing its city views as yet another block of flats is being built on the riverside.

As noted below, this pub is proudly perched on a hillside overlooking the River Tyne towards Newcastle. It was having an external paint job done on my visit with no signage. I found myself standing across the road from it peering at my map when a passer by put me straight. Again as noted below, it's a bit of a dive inside but the beer does the talking in these sort of places and there is a great view to relieve the drab surroundings. My worry is that they would overdo any internal changes and spoil the alehouse character. I counted nine hand pumps which had a cider, Almasty Echelon, Allendale GFPA & Pennine Pale, Roosters Alternative Facts, Oakham Citra, Fyne Jarl, Cullercoats Portland and Alchemy Citra and Mosaic Pale. I went for the GFPA which was in reasonably good nick. I saw a headline somewhere recently saying that "Free Trade Means Cheaper Prices" but that certainly isn't the case here as this 4.7% abv beer was £3.80 making it more expensive than several places in the centre of Newcastle. Despite that I thought it was a great place and well worth visiting. It's listed in the GBG under Byker but isn't really there nor the City Centre as I got a bus here and it was several stops.

Probably the best pub of the day as it had Jaipur which is one of my favourites. One of our companions was starving by now so he had a pie which looked OK. By the way, take a pen to the toilets and see if you can find a space to write something!!