The FreeTrade Inn

The Free Trade sits above the Ouseburn's mouth with the finest free view in Newcastle — the Tyne's bridges stacked to the west, best taken from the tiered garden with a pint from a tap list that has been fully independent only since 2015, when the pub finally freed its cellar from the dispense equipment Scottish & Newcastle had owned for decades; the liberation is part of the pub's telling and it earns the name on the sign. Mick Potts has run it since 2009, CAMRA gave it the Tyneside crown in 2013, and the nine casks, twelve kegs and six ciders rotate through the north's breweries like a working referendum. Graffiti in the gents is curated by tradition; everything else is beer and geography.