The CornerHouse

The Corner House occupies a former shopfront on Church Street, its interior lined with second-hand books, tourist leaflets and an open fire that gives the single room its library-like hush. Coffee is made from Northumberland's own Northern Edge beans, poured as flat whites and filter alongside oat and soya milk for the daily run of vegans and dog walkers off the town walls. The kitchen turns out a vegan soup with bread and spread each day, ciabattas filled with falafel or tofu, and a rotating shelf of cakes that has included carrot, marmalade and ginger. It closes on Sundays and by mid-afternoon the rest of the week, keeping to café hours rather than chasing evening trade. Locals treat the window seats as a reading room as much as a coffee stop.