Not already a member?
Join our community and
- Rate & review pubs
- Upload pictures
- Add events
JOIN for free NOW
Chat about:
New pub visits 2024 with Mobyduck
on the Pub Forum
Detail Pages
The Twisted Lip, Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough
TS1 2LF
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about The Twisted Lip
This is one of three micropubs in a mini-cluster on Baker Street; this accounts for them having names linked to Arthur Conan-Doyle's famous detective. The Twisted Lip (taken from the title of a Sherlock Holmes short story) has been converted from a terraced house in a way that makes it feel like being in someone's house, while at the same time feeling very pub-like. The front room looks just that: someone's front room. (Though to be fair, none of my friends and family have half a dozen foxes' heads and numerous other dead animals pinned to the walls of their living rooms.) The wall between this and the back room has been taken out, and this is where the bar counter is situated, with four hand pumps: one for Old Rosie cider, plus three beers. There was a stout (one had just expired, and the replacement was being pulled through), a best bitter (Colchester Brewery's Sweeney Todd) and a beer called Tangerine Dream (but I didn't note the name of the brewery). We went for the bitter, which was pretty good without making it onto the beer of the day list. This is an interesting street, especially after dark when the fairy lights strung from house to house form a canopy over the whole street which makes for a feel good atmosphere.
On 17th February 2020
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3746 recommendations about 3483 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Twisted Lip
We enjoyed our Saturday afternoon visit here and found this multi-room pub quite interesting, as it is two terraced houses knocked through into one and the snug at the rear also added another feature to the place. The young barmaid was very welcoming and chatty along with a couple of the customers at the small bar area. The bar had five handpumps serving a choice of three ales and two ciders. We went for the Wishbone Blonde again, having had the same beer in Dr Phil's, the condition in here was also just as good. The pub was also busy with table served food on our visit delivered to the table by the chef. The main meals I saw going out were burgers and bowls of mussels. A decent pub this one and well worth a visit.
On 28th July 2017
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Aqualung . left this review about The Twisted Lip
This one has been well described below.
The commonest misconception with micropubs is that the premises can be "too large" to be a micropub. The original few are very small single rooms but there is nothing to say that they all have to be like that. Of course the disadvantage of a larger one is that on quieter nights all the extra space is wasted. this was certainly the case on my Tuesday night visit here when this was the only one of the cluster of five micropubs with no music and no TVs so no guideline infringements. It's certainly the only one I've been to with several rooms. However, the candlelit tables included a wine list, not something I've seen before in a micropub.
The five hand pumps here had two ciders, Sonnet 43 Aurora & Abduction and Titanic Plum Porter. I went for the Titanic beer (£3.20) which was in good nick. The keg offerings here looked more interesting than the others and included Jaipur but at £4.60 I passed on it.
This is certainly an unusual and interesting micropub.
On 13th February 2017
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Twisted Lip
Located in the middle of the Baker Street cultural quarter, the Twisted Lip was initially touted as a micro pub, but my recent visit found a very unusual multiple room pub set in two knocked through terraced properties. You enter into a small hallway with a staircase opposite and rooms to either side. The main bar is through the right hand door in a bare boarded room with a red and grey paint scheme. The bar is located in the rear right corner and has a short dark wood servery and bare brick bar back with a drinking shelf on the wall opposite. The majority of the room's seating options are to the front, under the large bay window, in the form of standard tables and chairs. There is a nice tiled fireplace on the end wall, lots of taxidermy throughout and various cabinets and shelves full of all sorts of retro items such as old sewing machines and radios. Past the bar, there is a tiny snug with some fixed bench seating, bare brick walls and a large Lyons Tea sign, as well as access to a garden which I didn't explore. On the other side of the hallway you'll find a compact lounge, also bare boarded and with more standard tables and chars, plus another tiled fireplace, more taxidermy and an old typewriter on a table. It's a cosy spot and worth bagging a seat in if you want to be away from the busier bar area. The stairs lead up to the gents toilet on the landing area and then on again to two more knocked through rooms. The right side has a second bar with no cask ale and a bit of limited seating partly obscured by some wooden pillars, whilst to the left there was a full-on disco going on in a room decorated with murals of Amy Winehouse and the like. A DJ was set up in a booth to the rear and plenty of punters were having a dance, with the seating restricted to the perimeter of the room. The pub was packed, with no free seats in any of the rooms when I visited on a Saturday evening, and there was a very lively atmosphere and good mix of customers.
On the downstairs bar I noted three ales - Firkin Pale and Blackout and Maxim Double Maxim - as well as two ciders and keg beers from Brooklyn, Cameron's, Camden and Thornbridge. The Pale Ale was £3.20 for a pint and in fine condition and I enjoyed drinking it whilst exploring the various rooms, before settling down back in the main bar and admiring the very creative Halloween pumpkins on display.
I thought this was a great little pub that really captures the spirit of Baker Street. I don't think it can really be described as a micro pub, certainly not in physical terms, but it very much encapsulates a lot of the principals of that movement, offering compact drinking spaces where conversation can flourish over well kept pints of local ale. The fact that it can alternate between this and a lively weekend venue shows good versatility and I think it was the most enjoyable pub I found during my weekend in Middlesbrough.
On 6th December 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about The Twisted Lip
A larger micro pub in what looks like two converted terrace houses, there are two front rooms one with a large table and a small alcove The other is split by residual wall with a small seating area housing three Britannia tables with a mix of chairs, behind is the counter with stools. Five hand pumps one with cider and a mix of micro brewery ales on the others including a house badged beer and there's a keg tri-font serving Camden and Brooklyn beers. The beer quality was fine but a touch cold on a freezing day. Nice enough decor with red or green walls, old fireplaces and a collection of old pottery and stuffed animals, all the furniture is "period" including the big radio. Behind is a small snug with wooden benches and a door out to the yard/smoking area. All young punters apart from myself and all seemed to be staff or friends of. Constant jazz music which won't suit all tastes but all in all a fine drinking place. The ladies is at the bottom of the stairs, the gents are upstairs and there's some kind of music room up there as well.
On 3rd May 2015
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3269 recommendations about 2978 pubs]