Hebburn Is A Place On Earth

10th October 2026
Oxford City FC were making one of their longest journeys of the season in the Conference North, taking on league newcomers Hebburn Town on the southern side of the River Tyne.
It seemed a worthwhile challenge to make it to this one.

Actually it falls short of the longest of City's 26/27 trips - South Shields' Mariners Park ground is all of 1.1 miles further away.

My day started in Newcastle city centre which was enjoying glorious blue skies but wicked cold gusty winds.
The stencils celebrated local heroes...

Whilst visiting Brighton fans had been making their presence felt with a bit of stickering...

After a spot of breakfast in the Five Swans Wetherspoon's by the University, a visit to the Laing art gallery, and taking the opportunity to marvel the grand city centre buildings in the sunshine, I made my way to the Newcastle Tap for a pre-noon beverage.

Newcastle Tap (Baron House, 4 Neville Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5EN)
This addition to the Pivovar Tap empire was opened in 2017.  It's on the ground floor of former office block, Baron House, so unlikely to trouble the Taps at Sheffield or York for architectural wow factor.

Head back to 1974, when the office block was newly constructed, and you'd find the 8,000sq ft Geordie Pride pub in the basement, which featured a mock Victorian Street and recreation of the buffet from the former Douglas Hotel which stood on the site pre-1971.
Dare I say it sounds way more exciting than the Tap, a neat  industrial single room bar with a mezzanine level.

Not many customers at 11:30 on a Saturday.  
Lots of beers to pick from.
I went for the Wilde Child 'Shamrocks and Shenanigans', a good interpretation of a dry Irish stout, in great condition for what will have been the first poured of the day.

Right, midday, time to make the trip across to the south side of the river.

My expert research had confirmed that Hebburn and Radcliffe are battling it out for worst pub town in the National League North.

It's a bit of Tyneside with almost as many clubs as pubs.
Filtering the CAMRA pub map for those selling cask ale revealed few options. 

You could, of course, just stick in the city centre and travel on the Metro in time for kick-off, but I was determined to go on a mission to find somewhere that would serve me a decent beer before the match.
Firstly, 1.1 miles from the ground in Bill Quay.

The Wardley (Brack Terrace, Bill Quay, NE10 0TT)
The current building dates to 1897 when the local area was blooming with riverside industry and new terraced houses were being built to accommodate the influx of workers.  Many of those terraces have since being demolished leaving the Wardley standing alone.
Step inside (with just a little bit of trepidation - we're way off the tourist trail here) and you'll find a L-shaped room with a snug area to the back.  Cushioned bench seating to one side by the fireplace, high stools lined up to face the bar.  An odd feature was a floor to ceiling mirror at the end (who's that scruffy bloke taking pictures?)

The sole cask on offer was Ossett 'White Rat', a second hand pump with a turned around clip.  The White Rat, at £3.90 a pint, was served with a bit of patience, taking a while to settle, but once it was handed over to me I found it on pretty good form - an enjoyable beer.

The rest of the custom consisted four solo blokes, all obvious locals, and three dogs.  The build-up to the early Prem kick-off was showing on the TV screens, Tommy Hunt 'Lovin' on the Losing Side' (1976) playing in the background.  Uh-oh, is that an omen?

After the Wardley, I made my way up beyond the football ground and into the centre of Hebburn itself.

As I wasn't intrepid enough to venture into the club which supposedly sells cask, my only other option was a ten-minute trek along Jarrow Road to reach the Longship.

The Longship (Ushaw Road, Hebburn, NE31 2YA)
This is a community pub dating back to the eighties, but looking thoroughly modern within due to a 2025 refurb.  It's a Greene King house - the sole cask beer 'Abbott', which seems to be the norm these days since IPA has been put on the back burner.
The Longship was doing a roaring Saturday lunchtime trade.  Lots of Sunderland shirts by the bar, soon to depart to make the journey to the Stadium of Light.  Lots of food trade, with plates of pub grub coming out to tables full of folk of all ages.
Not a pub I'd get excited about, but good to see it doing well.  Abbott in 'Acceptable' condition.

A twenty minute walk took me back to the entrance to the Trustmark Group Stadium.

Hebburn Town FC achieved promotion as Northern Premier Division champions in 25/26, marking an ascension to the highest level they've played at to date.
They were founded as a works team for local engineering giants Reyrolles in 1912.  The factory, which stood between the ground and the river, is long gone, modern housing taking its place.  But the football team continued, recently going from strength-to-strength, the ground being further developed each time they moved up a league.

The two storey Sports Club in the corner has a pleasant bar on the ground floor and a function area with balcony overlooking the pitch on the first floor.  Closed for a private event on this occasion, which is a pity as I was looking forward to grabbing a spot on that balcony. 
The big brand keg beers were good value, Arsenal v Leeds was on TV screens, friendly folk shared my table and weren't shy to get chatting to the odd-bod from Oxford.

At the time, this was 3rd vs 5th in the National League North, Hebburn snubbing several predictions that they'd struggle at this level with strong performances in the first couple of months of the season.
In fact, they hadn't been beaten in a league match at the Trustmark Group stadium for a year. 

So it was an impressive start for the visitors when Tyrone Marsh scored for City after just 3-minutes.
I thought the two teams were pretty evenly matched for the remainder of the first half. Hebburn would have equalised if only you were allowed to take a throw-in from somewhere completely different to where the ball went out.

After surviving an early scare in the second half, City took control of the game.  Ludwig Francillette, once on Newcastle's books, took advantage of his considerable height and a perfectly placed corner to head into the top corner of the net.  Then Ellis Brown niftily drove the ball past the keeper to make it three after 64 minutes.

A great result, with only Macclesfield and Hereford above us in the league table.
Here's the hardy bunch of City supporters at the end of match, picture courtesy of the club's Facebook page.

I can't make it to the next couple of away fixtures, so the next footy ground pics and exploration of a new town will hopefully be from Hednesford in mid-November.
Keep the momentum going and we'll still be troubling the top of the league at that point.

And yes - very pleasingly - Hebburn did play the Belinda Carlisle track just before kick-off!

Chares, Bridges and Buses - Newcastle Pub Explorations

The first week of October 2026 saw me making the long haul up the M1/A1 to Newcastle for my first visit in many a year.  Lower league football on Saturday had tempted me in this direction, with plenty of time to explore Tyneside on Thursday and Friday.  Not nearly long enough, I quickly found out.

After a side-mission to Swalwell Lidl's on instructions to pick up a Bavarian beer box before they all sold out, I made it into the city centre and negotiated the narrow ramps of the Travelodge Central car park.  (No bumps this time, which is more than I can say about my trip to the Preston one).

Down to the quayside. 
Iconic shot of the bridges straight away in case the blue sky didn't last.
Then check where the nearest beer guide pub is, which turned out to be the Broad Chare.

Odd name.  A 'chare' is a traditional local term for a narrow lane or alley, this being the widest running from Quayside up into the town, hence the 'broad' chare.

Broad Chare (25 Broad Chare, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3DQ)
This one-time warehouse was transformed into a bar in 2011 in conjunction with the theatre next door.  I guess theatre-goers don't want a scruffy wet-led boozer for pre-show refreshments, so what you get in the Broad Chare is a celebrated gastro menu, craft beers and smart comfy seating areas.
And Bass and lots of dogs.

We do seem to have adopted Oktoberfest in 2026 more than I can ever remember in previous years.  We had three choices the previous weekend in Oxford for bratwurst, beer in big measures and staff in silly costumes.  No lederhosen and dirndls in the Broad Chare, but they did have the Bavarian bunting out and a menu of German food.  Several customers were tackling their Hofbräu by the stein (£15, yikes!).
I was (remarkably) smart enough to realise that pub exploration plans would be severely dented by starting on a litre of 6.3% beer.

I'm also predictable enough to order the Bass on first sight without even looking what else was on offer. Pale ales from Anarchy or Marble and a damson porter from Burton Bridge, as it turned out.

 

Diners are pointed upstairs, whilst the ground floor of the pub is divided into two, standing perches around the bar counter, a cosy section to the right with bench seating.
Music-wise, we got Pink Floyd 'See Emily Play', followed by the Small Faces and Derek & the Dominoes in a classic rock playlist, whilst the bar filled up nicely, doing a good lunchtime trade.

A short walk away, I found somewhere which makes for one of the best Pub & Bridge photos outside of Stockport and Durham. 

The Bridge Tavern (7 Akenside Hill, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 3UF)
There has been a pub on this site since the 19th century, the previous incarnation demolished to make way for the construction of the Tyne Bridge.  Not to be beaten by a bridge, the current building was constructed between 1925-29, tucked neatly into the stanchions.  

I thought it looked gorgeous from outside, with the earlier name, The Newcastle Arms, etched into the brickwork.  So it was a little disappointing to step through the door and find a thoroughly modern big open-plan space with an industrial feel to the iron beams and exposed ductwork.

There were also very few customers at the time I visited.

But plenty of beers.  From the run of eight hand pumps I couldn't resist something with Tunnock's designs on the clip calling itself a 'teacake- style stout'.

A Castle Rock and Loch Lomond brewery collab, the 'Time to Fly' was a beery chocolate and marshmallow delight.

So what else did I find in the Bridge Tavern?
Bookshelves, bespoke beer mats and brewing kit.

 

After falling into a bit of disrepair, the Bridge enjoyed a revival in 2013 which is when it had the brewing kit installed in conjunction with local Wylam Brewery.   But I'm not sure how much, if any, use that kit currently gets.

I ambled up The Side and - I'll own up to it now - walked straight past the Crown Posada and didn't go back throughout my whole time in Newcastle.  I was focussed on visiting places that were new to me, which is what took me to the top of the street, round the corner at the Castle Keep, and straight to the mightily impressive Bridge Hotel.

Bridge Hotel (Castle Garth, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1RQ)
This opened as the New Bridge Inn around 1850 at the same time as Stephenson's High Level Bridge - right next to it - was completed.  The original Inn didn't last an awfully long time, getting a rebuild in 1899 by architects Cackett and Burns Dick.  By the 1950s it had switched the name from Inn to Hotel and became home to the Bridge Folk Club, still running to this day, making it the second longest running folk club in the country.

The font for the hotel name above the symmetrical ground floor doors and windows is great.  Then you find John Fitzgerald adorning the mosaic tiling in the entryway - that being the name of the pubco who owned the Bridge from the 1950s until 2020. 

The pub is as impressive inside as out.  It's a huge place, with multiple sections, function rooms unseen, and a Wetherspoon-like trek to the toilets in the basement.
Lots of dark wood, burgundy leather benches and elaborate mirrors. 

Hand pumps dispensed eight beers from big brands to local micros.
I ordered the Two By Two 'Waves of Motueka' which got a nod of approval from the friendly chap serving me who marvelled how much flavour the local Byker brewery had packed into a 3.4% single hop beer.
I settled under the stained glass windows at the back of the pub, enjoying a cool sixties soundtrack of Dusty Springfield and Little Eva.

The Bridge was great and I could have sunk into the seat in the corner with a book and stayed there for the rest of the day.
Except I was too keen to make the walk across the High Level Bridge and enjoy the views in the October sunshine.
You arrive in Gateshead on the other side and Gateshead has a quite superb micro.

Microbus (Arch 2 Wellington St, Gateshead NE8 2AJ)
The archway which houses Microbus has had several uses over the years including as the High Level Café which gets a mention in Lindisfarne track 'Fog on the Tyne'.  The current bar was opened in 2022 and won the local regional CAMRA pub of the year award one year later.  It's not hard to see why.

I didn't even look at the keg lines, which I'm certain would have challenged my willingness to move on from here.  The cask line up included beers from Twice Brewed, Weekend Project, Lost Cause, Vaux, Brewlab and Otherworld.

I picked the Twice Brewed 'On the Number 21' a 6% hazy IPA, a collaboration between the Hexham-based brewery, Rare Drop bottle shop in Low Fell and Microbus themselves.  What a beer!
The music offered something a little bit different too, with Ray Wylie Hubbarb's 'Conversation with the Devil' and Tennessee Ernie Ford '16 Tonnes' my highlights.

I was in a fantastically quirkily decorated railway arch, with good music and a superb beer.  What more could I ask for?
"Would you like some curry?  It's free."

Thursday is curry day at Microbus and very tasty it was too.
Smart move to make one of the two veggie curries fiendishly hot, causing half the pub conversation to focus around 'have you had the hot one'.  The lady in charge of pouring the beers and dishing up the food popped over and had a nice chat with me, before admonishing the chap at my table for not eating his rice.  
"Sorry, I just don't really like rice."
"Who doesn't like rice?!"

I stuck around for a half of the fine Victorian porter from Otherworld, before moving on a short distance to Station East.

Station East (Hills St, Gateshead NE8 2AS)
Gateshead East Station was located on the southern side of the railway viaduct before it closed in 1981.   Other than a short spell as an Irish bar, this building stood derelict for many years after the station closed, until Hadrian Border Brewery brought the property in 2015 to make it the site of their first pub.  It took a fair bit of cash and 22 months to renovate the building, unearthing Victorian features and a route through to railway arches which now serve as a music and events space.

It's another wonderful bar.  Set over two levels, the Station had a charming ramshackle feel to it, with a decent number of customers coming and going, some Gateshead regeneration chat to listen to, and a grunge soundtrack featuring Temple of the Dog, Bush and Nirvana.

The various chalk boards advertising beers and ciders were slightly overwhelming, so I just went for what was right in front of me.

And wow!  That Hadrian Borders 'Oktoberfest' was good.  A wheat beer like I've never had before, served from the wood, with rich sweet malt and caramel flavours and a touch of smokiness from the barrel.

Departing the Station East, I headed down to the commercial hub of Gateshead where a first Wetherspoon's visit of the day was on the cards.

The Tilley Stone (Unit 9, 10 Jackson St, Gateshead NE8 1EE)
The Tilley Stone appears in the 2027 Good Beer Guide, so this served as GBG tick, Spoons tick, and the chance to try something from the Autumn beer festival list. 
It opened in 2011 in former retail premises and is named after two coal seams that were worked by local collieries.

This street, close to Gateshead Metro station, is one of those where the modern store fronts detract from some glorious architecture.  A glance above Spoons shows that the pub straddles two different buildings, seating inside on two levels with plenty of space for a decent Thursday afternoon crowd to spread out.
Or you can just loiter in the mini-Vegas bit by the loos.

From a good cask choice, I honed in on the Burning Sky 'East India Porter' - well, I would do wouldn't I?  Later perusal of the beer fest list confirmed this was the joint strongest one.
A lovely hoppy and chewy proper IPA, priced at just £2.10 a pint.

That marked the end of brief explorations of Gateshead for me.
Just time for a quick shot of the Brian Johnson street art...

...with more Tyne and Wear pubs to follow shortly.

Petts Wood to the Aldgate Tap

In which I make the journey from the SE corner of Greater London to the City, via a few pubs and a short stop to enjoy some rather splendid views of the Thames.
At the end of the last post I was hopping aboard a train at Chislehurst station, making the short one-stop trip to Petts Wood.

The Pett family gave their name to this little corner of London.  They were prominent shipbuilders between the 15th and 17th centuries who leased the woods in this region as a source of timber.  One of the warships which they built, the Sovereign of the Seas, provided a name to the local Wetherspoon's pub where I'd shortly find myself.
Petts Wood was a largely rural area until the 20th century, with the railway station, shops, cinema and housing estates arriving in the 1920s and 30s.  The local pub was the Charrington Brewery Daylight Inn. 

Named in honour of local resident William Willett, who devised the idea of daylight saving, a one-time legal restriction stated that no other pub could be built within 1-mile of the Inn.  Hence this was the sole pub in the area until Wetherspoon's set up shop.  And now they also have a micropub...  

One Inn the Wood (209 Petts Wood Rd, Petts Wood, Orpington BR5 1LA)
The Onn in the Wood, on the eastern side of the railway, opened in May 2014 in premises that previously housed Bradley's Wine Bar.
You get hops on the ceiling, high benches and stools, and beers served on gravity from a chilled room behind the counter.  But it veers away from the trad Kent micro model by having keg beers, a dormant TV, music, and pot plants on each table.
A great beer list included local favourites alongside brews sourced from further afield - just £4 for your pint of Gadds No5.

It was the pricier Two By Two hazy IPA that I opted for - murk from up north with a 6% ABV which was quite superb.

Despite how it may appear from this blog, I do sometimes make notes when visiting pubs.  For the One Inn the Wood, I have written down "Bamboo in my garden".  What does it mean? No idea.
Possibly a typo and they were playing early 00s ambient music or 1920s American jazz.  Unlikely I was thinking of horticultural designs for home.  Possible I'd misidentified those plants on the tables.

I finished the cracking pale ale and returned my glass to the bar, then headed over the railway footbridge onto Queensway, which provides a run of shops for the folks of Petts Wood.
And the Spoons.
Good hanging baskets (good beer?)...

The Sovereign of the Seas (109-111 Queensway, Petts Wood, BR5 1DG)
This JD Wetherspoon's opened in March 1995 in what was formerly a Co-Op supermarket.  No surprises about what it looks like within - a large open-plan room with the usual range of high seats, booths and rather squeezed-in tables.
The carpet was busy enough to disguise any spillages, the statue a little out of place.

 

Beer-wise, the Spoons Fest flags were up but this visit came before the Autumn ale selection arrived on the bar.  My choice of guest beers was from Adnams, Goffs, Nethergate and Reedly Hallows.  The latter for me - a light 3.8% bitter called 'Beer o' Clock' from the Burnley brewery.

It was pretty busy for mid-afternoon.  I failed to find a free table that I really liked in a circumnavigation of the pub and ended up on a high stool by the pillar at the front.
A fella drinking Stowford Press cider, whose baggy trousers were hanging so low it was incredible they hadn't fallen down, was educating anyone who'd listen about Zionism and Middle East history.  I'm glad he steered clear of my spot. 
Ending his diatribe with "Free Narnia!" was a pretty good deterrent for anyone thinking of challenging his point of view.

The early evening opening time of the Liberal Club prevented me from popping one stop further to Orpington for a Beer Guide tick.
Instead, I headed northbound, alighting at Lewisham and switching onto the Docklands light railway.  I don't think there is an age restriction for giddy excitement at getting the front seat on the driverless trains.

What a great journey, past the multiple new builds of Deptford, under the Thames, then weaving amongst the shiny towers of Canary Wharf.
I hopped off at Limehouse, where you'll find the Good Beer Guide-listed Clement Atlee just under the railway bridge.

The Clement Attlee (576 Commercial Rd, London E14 7JD)
This was opened as the eighth branch of the Craft Beer Co. chain in 2017.  The set-up is the same as you'll find in their other locations: a smart modern reinvention of a traditional pub (this used to be a scruffy local corner pub called the Railway) and a long bar counter with overwhelming choice.
As well as the six cask ales there was a run of 22 kegs, probably with lots I would have fancied, but I didn't want to make this my last stop of the day.

I picked the always reliable Burning Sky Brewery, whose 'Field Trip' was an excellent NZ pale ale.

There was a nice relaxed atmosphere in the pub - a mix of customers from board game players to folks tapping away on laptops.  I failed to visit the secret (in as much as there's a big neon sign saying 'secret') rooftop garden, content in my little corner in this superb pub.

Leaving the Clement Attlee, I headed through the streets southwards to the river.

Walking along Narrow Street, it was a pleasure to reach the Grapes and some buildings that weren't 21st century apartments on the site of old warehouses.
How have I not been here before?  I always seem to have got as far as the Prospect of Whitby and turned back when exploring the north side of the Thames.

The Grapes (76 Narrow St, London E14 8BP)
This narrow building dates back to 1720, although a previous tavern called the Bunch of Grapes existed on the site for almost 200 years prior.
It's now quite famously owned by actor Ian McKellen, film director Sean Matthias and Evening Standard publisher Evgeny Lebedev.
So at least I know that my £6.25 for a pint of Black Sheep 'Best' went to a trio who really needed the money.

It is a lovely riverside pub with a timeless traditional feel.
It's also a tourist attraction with a procession of people poking their heads in and groups taking pictures of one another standing on the balconies to the rear.
There may be a couple of levels of those balconies overlooking the river but they can fit very few drinkers on them so you'd be lucky to score a spot to watch the sun set over the towers of the City.  I managed to get the prime table in the window alcove in the front room though, so I was happy.

Moving on, I returned to Limehouse and caught the next train westbound.
Next stop, the Princess of Prussia, listed under Goodman's Field in the 2027 Good Beer Guide, which still manages to find places in the heart of the City that cause me to ask "where's that?" 

Princess of Prussia (15 Prescot St, London E1 8AZ)
Haven't they done a great job of lighting up the splendid lettering on the front of the pub? 
The original Princess of Prussia became a public house in 1859 when it would have initially received much of its custom from the neighbouring Whitechapel County Court.
Truman's took over in 1913 and commissioned architect William Sewell to rebuild the inn, providing us with the design we see today.  It has had several brewery owners since, with Shepherd Neame arriving in 2005.

Three Sheps real ales on offer from which I picked the 'Whitstable Bay'.
I settled in the back room, keeping the seat warm for Rachel, who'd reserved the whole room for 7:30,
There's a random Borussia Dortmund scarf.
Kim Wilde 'You Keep Me Hanging On' playing in the background.
The 'Whitstable Bay' okay, but not blowing me away.

For such a central pub at 7pm on a Thursday the Princess of Prussia was much quieter than I'd expect.  I do hope Rachel turned up.

My final port of call - a short stroll away - was certainly not short of a post-work office crowd.

Aldgate Tap (Pavillion, 1 Portsoken St, Aldgate, London EC3N 1AF)
Although they'd all elected to crowd outside the Portsoken Pavillion, leaving an ample choice of indoor seating for me.
Added to the Tap empire in 2022, this is a stunning building which was previously a café and events space when it first opened in 2018.  The modern structure was part of a redevelopment of an old gyratory system into a traffic-free space.  The toilets in the basement are actually in a section of the old pedestrian subway that ran beneath the roundabouts.

Just the one cask ale available: Coley's Bitter at a remarkable central London price of £4.40 a pint.
The focus is more on keg beer, with German and Austrian Pils, Bavarian helles, and Czech dark lager on offer, alongside several red ales and IPAs of indeterminate origin.  Everything priced between £6.40 and £7.00 a pint, which - again - seems pretty reasonable for the location.

I'd be happier with a visit early in the day.  I did feel very scruffy and out-of-place amongst the City crowd, but I'm glad I visited.
Last beer of the day for me.
A descent into the depths of the subway and a train home beckoned.