With the joys that were being in lockdown for pretty much that last year, we needed to look closer to home to provide us with something to do. Ouseburn has always been one of my favourite areas on Newcastle, mainly because of all the great real ale pubs in the area. Over the years though, the area has really transformed into a hipster paradise and if you’re looking for something cheap to do that keeps you out the pubs for a few hours, then wandering around looking at the street art isn’t a bad use of your time.
There’s no particular route to follow ever everything is kind of dotted around all over the place but I’ve highlighted a few of the hotspot areas where you’re likely to see the majority of the cool stuff.
There is a 57 space car park in the Ouseburn Central Car Park on Foundry Lane (postcode NE6 1LH) with pedestrian access to Lime Street and Seven Stories over the footbridge next to Ouseburn Farm. There is also free parking in the Ouseburn South Car Park at Spiller’s Quay (postcode NE6 1BU) next to The Cycle Hub on the Quayside, a 5 minute walk away. There is level pedestrian access along the footpath at the side of the Ouseburn river – join the path at the Tyne Pub opposite the car park .
We parked there and walked up to Warwick Street which is about 15 minutes away through the park.
It’s a little out of the way, and I was wearing the complete wrong trainers for this expedition, but once we got up there we did find some really cool graffiti art up some of the side streets:
If you head back down by typing Ernest then the Tanners Arms pub into google maps you’ll eventually find yourself at the top of Stepney Bank with is littered with cool stuff as you head down to the Ship Inn:
Now, while you were in the area, it would be remiss of you not to stop for some light refreshment before heading over to the last stop right? Right! Why not check out this handy Ouseburn pub guide I put together a few years ago? There’s some really lush places to try in the area, or, if you’ve got some kiddies with you, check out Ouseburn farm? In that little pub triangle pointed by The Ship Inn, The Cumberland Arms and the Cluny are some other funky things to look at, like these colour bollards, which, had it not been slap bang in the middle of lockdown when we visited, I would have loved to have perched upon with a glass of wine.
When you’re fully refreshed and rehydrated, head down Lime Street for these gems (now would be a good idea to program ‘Kiln’ into google maps and that’s where you’re going to end up):
Follow your GPS round to Kil, which incidentally is a really cute coffee shop with loads of outside space and home made goodies like pies, quiches and cakes (and they’re lisenced too, even better!) for the final stop of the tour and i’ve saved the best til last. Not only can you take advantage of the spotlights outside Kiln
But round the corner onto Maling street (keep Kiln on your left and it’s the next left hand turn) to find the holy grail of blogger instagram murals to pose in front of:
And there you have it, this concludes the tour! Hopefully you have a better weather day than we did, and even if all the bars and restaurants are closed (who knows what fresh hell awaits us while this virus is still kicking about) it’s a good free day out and a great chance to get some cool pictures taken!
