Bede

We wondered if this day would ever come. We’ve been metro pubbing for the best part of a year and have been to some really lovely places, some places we never thought we’d venture and some places we’d happily never venture again but we’ve always managed to find somewhere to have a drink.

Bede is one of the few stations that’s in Jarrow, but not Jarrow of course and it services a large industrial estate with multiple factories and outlets and probably where learner drivers go to practice their 3 point turns, as that’s what most North Eastern Industrial estates seem to be used for.

It gets it’s name from a monk named Venerable Bede who kicked around in a monastery  nearby (St Paul’s) in the 7th century. The metro wasn’t around back then, obviously but old Venerable was obviously kind of a big deal so the name stuck.

The station was opened along with the rest of the South Shields line in 1984, a couple of months after Venerable’s death and is one of the least used stations on the whole network with only around 155K passengers in the last year.

All of this filler is quite clearly leading me to the fact that I was worried we has failed you, loyal WBMT fans. As a little glimpse behind the scenes of the WBMT, i feel it appropriate to tell you I try and do my research when visiting uncharted territory, of which Bede is to me. I put a call out on Twitter and Facebook for recommendations and asked people I know who live round that way and no one came out with a decide watering hole. Bede was to be a station where we sat out a round to re hydrate (re hydration is key afterall).

However, it’s since been brought to my attention via the good people of South Shields via Twitter that in fact, you can get a very good pint or Moretti (thanks Brian!) at South Shields AFC (Also known as The New Mariners Club). If you exit Bede station walk south on Monksway towards Shaftsbury Avenue then turn right and the football club will be there on the right.

The bar is open Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and anytime SSFC are playing at home!

So there you go, Bede isn’t quite the pubbing dessert that I was led to believe. Lesson learnt to do my research a bit more thoroughly in future!

Find out where else we’ve been on our metro adventure here