Dog-Friendly Newcastle City Centre: Pubs, Cafes and Walks

Newcastle is an easy city to spend a day in with a dog. The centre is compact and flat enough to walk end to end, there is a proper riverside path along the Tyne, and a good number of the pubs and cafes in Grainger Town, on the Quayside and down in the Ouseburn will happily pour you a pint or a coffee with the dog stretched out at your feet. Policies do change, and some places only take dogs in certain rooms or before a certain hour, so it is always worth a quick check before you set off. This guide covers the venues where a warm welcome is well established.

City-centre pubs and bars

The one to seek out is The Town Mouse Ale House, a basement micro-pub on St Mary's Place near the Civic Centre. It is a repeat winner of the local CAMRA pub of the year award, and dogs are part of the furniture: there are free biscuits and a water bowl, and the bar even keeps a dog beer for four-legged regulars. It is small, conversational and screen-free, which suits a settled dog well.

Closer to the shops, The Forth on Pink Lane is a reliable Grainger Town choice, keeping water bowls, treats and blankets on hand for visiting dogs a couple of minutes from Central Station. West of the centre on Gallowgate, Bealim House has the space to accommodate a dog across its big open room and mezzanine, which makes it a sensible option on a match day near St James' Park.

For a pint with a view, the Quayside delivers. The Bridge Tavern sits directly under the Tyne Bridge with a sunny terrace and its own micro-brewery, and welcomes dogs earlier in the day. A short walk along Sandhill, Redhouse is a cosy traditional pub that puts out treats and water for dogs any day of the week. Up on The Side, the Grade II listed Crown Posada is worth showing anyone: a narrow Victorian drinking house with stained glass and no televisions, a fine first or last stop on a riverside walk.

The Ouseburn cluster

Ten minutes downhill from the centre, the Ouseburn Valley is the best concentration of dog-friendly independent pubs in the city. Free Trade Inn is the pick for the view, its beer garden looking straight back down the river to the Tyne Bridge, with a rotating cask range leaning heavily on North East breweries. Nearby, The Cumberland Arms has bare boards, a terrace and folk sessions, an unpretentious place where a muddy dog is entirely at home after a valley walk.

The Cluny, in a former Dobson flax mill on Lime Street, is a bar, cafe and live music venue that welcomes dogs in the main bar and serves food through the day, which makes it a natural stop mid-walk. If you fancy the trip north to Exhibition Park, Wylam Brewery occupies the art deco Palace of Arts and has plenty of room for a dog to snuffle about while you work through the taproom range.

Cafes for a coffee stop

For daytime coffee, Olive & Bean just off Grey Street welcomes well-behaved dogs and is a comfortable city-centre spot for coffee and cake. Over in Carliol Square, Tiny Tiny takes dogs indoors, and near the station Quay Ingredient is a popular brunch cafe on Queen Street close to the Quayside.

Down in the Ouseburn, Ernest on Boyd Street is a relaxed all-day cafe and bar that welcomes dogs, and Cook House at Foundry Lane Studios keeps its outdoor seating dog-friendly with water bowls, an ideal reward after a walk up the burn.

If your day out is really about the dog, Dog and Scone on Pudding Chare is Newcastle's dedicated dog cafe, a garden-themed room where you book a timed session and share cake and coffee with a pack of resident dogs. It is aimed at dog lovers rather than dog owners, so you leave your own at home for this one and book ahead.

Where to walk

The Quayside riverside path is the city centre's best flat walk, running along the north bank of the Tyne beneath the bridges. Head east and it reaches the mouth of the Ouseburn in around a quarter of an hour, where you can turn inland up the valley past Free Trade Inn, then loop back over the Millennium Bridge for a satisfying circuit. For proper open ground, Leazes Park is the closest formal park to the shops, with a lake circuit behind St James' Park, and the Town Moor beyond it offers a thousand acres of common land, though grazing cattle are out through summer so dogs need to be kept under close control.

Put it together and a full day writes itself: a walk on the Quayside, coffee at Quay Ingredient or Cook House, a wander up the Ouseburn to the Cumberland Arms or Free Trade Inn, and a settled evening pint back at the Town Mouse in the centre.

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