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Free Trade Inn, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE6 1AP
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Danny O'Revey left this review about Free Trade Inn
Excellent beer pub, currently with great views and well worth a visit. Traditional local that seems to be thriving
On 6th June 2022
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1456 recommendations about 1434 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Brainy Pool left this review about Free Trade Inn
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.
On 12th March 2020
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1058 recommendations about 1023 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Aqualung . left this review about Free Trade Inn
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.
On 24th August 2018
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
custodian 42 left this review about Free Trade Inn
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!!
On 4th December 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1693 recommendations about 1691 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Free Trade Inn
Just off the Quayside, close to the mouth of the Ouseburn, this is a lively and popular local's pub and ale house. A corner entrance takes you into an L-shaped room with a similar shaped servery opposite. The bar has a nice dark wood counter and traditional bar back and was pretty tricky to reach due to a long line of bar blockers perched on high stools the entire length. To the right of the entrance there are high stools opposite the bar underneath windows that give you a great view out across the Tyne. Three steps at the far end lead you down into a small seating area which has a handful of tables and chairs, a couple of benches and a fireplace on the end wall. Pictures of well known local landmarks adorn the walls which have been painted in a truly unlovable colour scheme and seemed to be in a pretty bad state of disrepair. Over on the left hand side of the pub there is a space for standing room only, beyond which you'll find a decent looking lounge area of sorts, where plenty more seating can be found in a relatively smart and well kept space. Music played quietly throughout my stay, with the chatter from around the room periodically drowning it out entirely and I also noticed a juke box on one wall.
The ale range here was particularly strong, as befits a pub that won the Tyneside CAMRA Pub of the Year award a few years back. Options on handpull this time were Fyne Ales Jarl, Out There Celestial Love, Left Handed Giant Lactose Tolerant, Wylam Silver Ghost, Credence Pale and a collaborative brew from Wylam and Left Handed Giant called Ctrl, Alt Del. There were a couple of pumps with turned clips and a good keg range included numerous beers from local micros. My pint of the Lactose Tolerant was outstanding and I was served by a very helpful barman who talked me through some of the options.
This place is a great community boozer with an outstanding ale range - a winning combination if ever there was one. I found the place a bit tatty and frayed around the edges and felt that with a little bit more care and attention, this could be a real destination pub. I really enjoyed my time here and could quite easily have settled down for the rest of the evening had there not been other exciting pubs to discover further up the valley.
On 13th May 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Free Trade Inn
Doesn't look too promising from outside and to be fair the wedge shaped interior isn't much to get excited about, painted a hideous nicotine/faecal yellow with fairly battered fittings. However two aspects work in its favour. Firstly. the fantastic elevated view of the Tyne (and bridges) from its windows and beer garden; secondly, the ale range - six in total, from Jarl, Allendale, Thornbridge and Top Out. Unsure whether the ‘Free Trade Inn’ pump featuring a cat's face actually dispensed anything, but said moggy was perched atop the (free) jukey and as happy as Larry. My Top Out Smoked Porter was in good nick, if rather heavy going. Also of note was the fridge stocking a good variety of bottled and tinned foreign fayre, plus nine craft keg offerings, the prices of which varied from reasonable to silly but were clearly marked on a blackboard. Friendly barmaid but she wasn't good at basic chores, with dead glasses littered around inside and out. If you have a day to do Newcastle and the weather’s decent, it’s worth popping out here for a pint and a view. With a bit of TLC and less litter, it could have been classed as essential.
On 6th July 2015
- rating: 8
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
ROB Camra left this review about Free Trade Inn
Excellent pub, well described in detail below. It's one basic room really but with a couple of distinct areas. We sat in the area just to the left and rear of the bar and had a good look at all the pictures on the walls. There's a jukebox, the top of which is apparently the favoured lounging place for the pub cat, who for some reason is called CraigDavid. He has his own Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CDPCfreetrade. 5 beers available on our visit and between us we tried 4 of them, all were in excellent nick. Friendly, knowledgeable barstaff add to the appeal. A pub we'll be visiting again and again I suspect.
On 7th May 2014
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3224 recommendations about 3135 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about Free Trade Inn
Situated in the Ouseburn area of Newcastle, a short and pleasant walk along the riverside walkway from the City Centre, is The Free Trade Inn.
It’s a single split level room with basic seating and nicotine coloured walls and ceiling. There’s something of that lived in proper pub feel, enhanced by the absence of any TV’s or fruit machines, although there is a renowned free juke box. The local CAMRA branch magazine describes the interior as “shabby chic”, reflecting the fact that the area as a whole is allegedly on the up. It’s an unusual mix of old factories and warehouses and modern apartment blocks.
Up a slight incline from the riverside, large windows and a small seating area over the road provide superb views of the various bridges over the River Tyne and the Newcastle skyline. The interior features plenty of black and white photos of old Newcastle city scenes and industries. A local deli and butchers provide a selection of sandwiches and pies respectively. Wednesday’s quiz night offers the chance to win 18 bottles of Budweiser, should you feel the need.
A blackboard over the bar advises us to “drink beer, smoke tabs at The Free Trade Inn – a better bar by far”. The pub is a keen supporter of microbreweries and is a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular. Despite the blackboard advertising beers from Mordue, Jarrow, Hadrian Border, Archers and Wylam, it transpired that none of these beers were on when I called in one Saturday lunchtime in September. Instead, notably, there was a dominance of beers from the Holmfirth Summer Wine Brewery with as many as 4 of their beers on – Zenith, Berry Big, Oregon and Teleporter supplemented by a beer each from Great Heck and Tempest Brewing Co. Beers sampled were in good form.
Worth seeking out – and, in particular, do leave time to inspect the splendid graffiti in the gents toilets
On 1st November 2013
- rating: 8
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about Free Trade Inn
Another superb Ouseburn pub for the beer enthusiast, this one has possibly unrivalled views from an elevated position upstream along the Tyne valley to central Newcastle a mile or so away. The pub itself is rather careworn to be polite, shabby really with nicotine yellow surfaces everywhere and seriously graffitted toilets although there are some rather amusing comments therein.
A long narrow L shaped space with a bare boarded floor which steps down to the rear as the river bank descends. Lots of very good and atmospheric B&W photos of Newcastle and the Tyne together with it's now lost industries. Some of the tables are inlaid with the Newcastle Blue Star, a bit of history of this City and it's former brewery.
Very busy and jovial on Saturday evening with a host of genuine beer loving punters, I'm not sure I recorded all the beers but I got Magic Rock Curious, Rapture and High Wire, Mordue IPA, Tyne Peloton Bank Pale Ale, VIP Village Copper and Three Kings Highgate Pale, the last three being new to me.
This certainly isn't the place to take someone on a first date but for a few superb beers and a great view it is spot on. A good crawl can be had around here with The Cumberland, Tyne Bar and the Cluny close by.
On 6th December 2012
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1708 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about Free Trade Inn
I got the Metro to Byker and this pub was about a ten minute walk from there. It is a small pub overlooking the Tyne and has great views into central Newcastle along the river. Five ales on handpump and I settled on Mordue Geordie Pride and Workie Ticket. It was about a 15min walk along the Quays back into central Newcastle. Well worth a visit
On 1st July 2012
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]