You know what doesn’t fill me with much joy? When you google a pub to do some research and one of the first stories that come up is the Chronicle headline ‘Two Bailed after assault outside North Shields pub’. However rules are rules and if the rules are to go to the closet pub to the metro station then the closest pub is where we’re going to go. In the case of North Shields; that pub is Charlie’s Bar.
If you come out of North Shields station and turn left you will see Charlie’s on the corner 100 yards away. We visited on a Saturday lunchtime and there were a smattering of locals in and plenty of sport to watch on the TV. The décor is a standard working class North Eastern pub with the bar in the middle of the room, bar on one side and lounge area on the other.
I make a point of visiting pubs we wouldn’t normally with an open mind and as with most places we’ve visited on the tour where their reputation has preceded them; you shouldn’t always judge a pub but its façade (or Chronicle headlines). We were made to feel welcome when we arrived earlyish afternoon on a Saturday in November; it was just over £3 for a glass of wine and a half of Guinness and the barmaid was friendly when we asked for directions of how to get to the Ferry terminal. In fact, were it not for my inability to read a ferry timetable properly we probably wouldn’t have been in such a hurry and may have stayed for a second drink.
Yes it’s very rough around the edges and could do with some money being invested (neither of the female toilet cubicles had locks of the door for example) and I’m not entirely sure it’s somewhere I’d want to be at 10pm on a Saturday night but as somewhere to get a cheap drink or to start off a North Shields pub crawl it’s not too bad. The music on the jukebox was good too!
Contact:
60 Nile Street, North Shields, Tyne And Wear, NE29 0BG
Find out where else we’ve been on our metro adventure here
I like your fearless and open minded approach! Boy what a cheap round! £3 for both drinks together? Bargain!