Exhibition Park, Haymarket & the Quayside

Best time: Saturday from noon (Wylam is open Friday to Sunday only, and Town Mouse opens at 2pm Monday to Thursday). Friday from 3pm also works. Other days, start at Mean-Eyed Cat. Opening hours change, so check each venue before you set off.

The stops

1. 

   Wylam Brewery at the Palace of Arts

   Palace of Arts, Exhibition Park, Claremont Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4PZ · Haymarket (Metro), about 15 min walk through Exhibition Park

   One of the most spectacular brewery settings in Britain: a 30-barrel brewery and taproom inside the Grade II-listed Palace of Arts, the last building left from the 1929 North East Coast Exhibition, beside the lake in Exhibition Park. Full Wylam range including flagship Jakehead IPA and up to four cask beers, plus a big terrace. Taproom open Friday 3pm–11pm, Saturday noon–11pm, Sunday noon–7pm.

   Open in Google Maps

2. 

   Mean-Eyed Cat

   1 St Thomas' Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LE · Haymarket (Metro), 2 min walk

   Tiny, colourful micropub in a former newsagent's opposite Haymarket bus station, opened in 2018 and named after the Johnny Cash song. Six cask and eight keg lines of local, national and international beers, with a rear terrace. Open Monday to Wednesday noon–10pm, Thursday to Saturday noon–10:30pm, Sunday 1pm–10pm.

   Open in Google Maps

3. 

   Town Mouse Ale House

   Basement, 11 St Mary's Place, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7PG · Haymarket (Metro), 3 min walk

   Five-time Newcastle CAMRA Pub of the Year (most recently 2024): a Belgian-inspired basement ale house for about 50 people, focused on the best North East cask and keg beers, British ciders and locally made bar snacks. Open Monday to Thursday 2pm–10pm, Friday and Saturday noon–11pm, Sunday 2pm–9pm.

   Open in Google Maps

4. 

   Bacchus

   42–48 High Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6BX · Monument (Metro), 3 min walk

   Big Sir John Fitzgerald pub just off Grey Street with an ocean-liner theme and a long bar of cask ales and craft keg, a regular in the Good Beer Guide. Open Monday to Thursday 11:30am–11pm, Friday and Saturday 11:30am–midnight, Sunday noon–10:30pm.

   Open in Google Maps

5. 

   Crown Posada

   31 Side, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3JE · Monument or Central Station (Metro and rail), about 7 min walk

   Narrow 1880 Victorian pub with a nationally important historic interior: Pre-Raphaelite stained glass, mahogany panelling, an ornate ceiling and a record player on the bar. Good on local cask ales. Open Sunday to Thursday 11am–midnight, Friday and Saturday 11am–2am.

   Open in Google Maps

6. 

   The Bridge Tavern

   7 Akenside Hill, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3UF · Monument or Central Station, about 8 min walk

   Brewpub tucked directly beneath the Tyne Bridge, with a small in-house brewery (partnered with Wylam, whose Tavern Gold is the house cask), a library room and a rooftop terrace looking up at the bridge. Open Monday to Thursday noon–midnight, Friday and Saturday noon–1am, Sunday 11am–11pm.

   Open in Google Maps

Start at the Palace of Arts in Exhibition Park and work downhill through the city to finish under the Tyne Bridge on the Quayside.

Bacchus to the Crown Posada: walk down Grey Street and Dean Street, or the steps of Dog Leap Stairs, to the Side.

Finish with a walk across the Millennium Bridge to the BALTIC, or straight on into the Ouseburn route about 15 minutes east along the Quayside.

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