Fawdon station opened in 1981 and is one of the many residential stations on the network work servicing the Redhouse Farm/Fawdon/Coxlodge area of Newcastle. Platform 1 was once called Coxlodge station, which was in use between 1905 and 1929 as part of the Ponteland Railway.
If you exit the station and walk down Fawdon Lane towards the Redhouse Farm housing estate for about 10 minutes you’ll eventually stumble across the Northumbrian Piper. I say stumble across, you have to know it’s there to find it. It calls it’s self ‘Gosforth’s hidden gem’ and it certainly is pretty well hidden in this leafy suburb about 3 miles outside of the city centre.
We visited on a wet, grey miserable Saturday afternoon (perfect pub visiting weather in my opinion) and it was pretty quiet inside. That didn’t mean we didn’t receive a warm welcome though. The sizable pub is split into two areas, the bar and the restaurant. The bar is worn and traditional with dark wood and fraying upholstery but is not without a certain charm. The ale selection was poor sadly with only craft ale Shipyard on offer along with the standard ‘extra cold’ lagers. The do change their ales regularly though I’m reliably informed! The house wine (pinot grigio) however was ice cold (how I prefer it) and served in nice big glasses (also how I like it).
It was a big sport day when we visited; there were 2 rugby matches and Newcastle playing Wolves away, all of which were being shown on the large TVs that were dotted around the bar and despite me usually having big reservations about pubs showing sport all day, it actually gave the bar some atmosphere on this occasion. I think it would have been too quiet otherwise so I’ll let them off this once.
I’d say we probably picked the wrong time to visit and I think it has potential in abundance. The guy behind the bar (landlord perhaps?) seemed like a lovely chap and almost offered my mum a job when she started collecting the empty glasses and taking them back to the bar as we left. I never underestimate the importance of great banter in a pub! Had it been walking distance to her house I think she may have taken him up on the offer!
The restaurant side seems a little more polished and offer a wide menu of reasonably priced pub favourites and have a large car park, lots of outside seating and a kids playground so no doubt is a firm family favourite when the weather gets a bit nicer.
Contact:
Fawdon House,1 Fawdon Close
Newcastle Upon Tyne
Tyne and Wear NE3 2AH
Tel: 0191 2856793
Facebook: Northumbrian Piper
Twitter: @NorthumbPiper
See where else we’ve visited on out little metro adventure here
