House of Hop, Darlington

Bar to rear as you enter. Seats beforehand. Five cask and nine keg. Not a bad place at all - would return.

Called in last month and tried Midnight Slug from Roundhill brewery. Cask and keg beers on offer, but only open Thursday to Sunday.

Probably a shop conversion but with scary staff, mostly a square room with booth seating one side, bench seating on the other and tall garden chairs in the middle, there’s an alcove with tall stools to one side. Three pulls at one end of the counter and a horseshoe of ten interesting kegs at the other. Fairy lights and industrial lighting can only add to the overall but gentle pretention. As the beer was so good I ignored that stuff.