So what's all this I've heard about Newcastle-upon-Tyne? My mate over here in France tells me there's a pub every 45 seconds in the city - or at least there used to be when HE lived there. But where are they all? I spent three hours in the city last Tuesday, walking around in increasingly wide circles, desperate for a decent pint of beer (I only wanted the one), and found just two such establishments. One was closed and the other was a very non-descript basement bar where I ended up (horror of horrors for yours truly in the UK) drinking nondescipt red wine at £3.20 a glass. I mean, I can do that at home, can't I? Can anyone help me out for future trips there? Where are all the city centre Newcastle pubs - if any? I don't mind walking or getting the metro, honest, just help!!

Ah, the famous Newcastle wines ! Best bet may be to get yourself a copy of The Good Beer Guide, published by CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) and plan in advance.CAMRA has a website which leads you to the email address of the local rep for Tyneside. Disturbingly the CAMRA site's own page for that area is in the course of updating, which may mean that they are still out there looking

www.camra.org.uk/

In most places there are a fewer pubs than there were. The 'King Street run' in Cambridge, where undergraduates used to drink a pint in each pub, running the length of this short street to do so, is now not performed because the number of pubs has diminished. Pubs now sell a lot of wine. This was once uniformly bad, not necessarily because the wine was bad to start with but because the bottles stood open for so long between uses. Newcastle would not be in the forefront of the pub wine business

Excellent response, quite excellent. Many thanks Fred!

Well, 35 years ago when I was a working musician with a band I often found myself working in Newcastle. And there really were a great number of first class pubs, serving Class 1 ales. Federation, Exhibition, Newcastle Brown Ale were just some of the fine drinks on offer (OK, so Newcastle Brown was bottled) and we spent many a merry hour in those hostelries. We really need Cap'n Kane's input. I will see if I can find him...watch this space!

Ah yes, but 35 years ago Newcastle was heaving with pubs. Since then though, the decaying inner-city has been torn down and rebuilt, with a good deal of success in many ways. Safer, well-lit, great for shops, excellent new metro system, but pedestrianisation brings certain losses to a city's soul. So I found in my two three hour sojourns in the place ten days or so ago. And I did venture our of the new bits, truly I did. So help, please, Cap'n Kane. Anyone? Where can I find again the old days for a pint or two?