The Oldest Pubs in North Shields

For a town built on fishing, few things are as woven into North Shields as its pubs. The narrow streets beneath the bank and the quaysides along the Tyne once held more than a hundred of them, so many that the riverside earned a reputation as one of the most hard-drinking places in England. Most of those old inns are long gone, but a couple of genuine survivors remain, and the stories of the rest are worth telling. Here is our guide to the oldest pubs in North Shields.

The Low Lights Tavern

Down on Brewhouse Bank by the Fish Quay, The Low Lights Tavern has a strong claim to being the oldest pub in North Shields. The building dates to 1657, and it is widely described as having served as an alehouse for around 400 years, making it the oldest bar on the quay. In Victorian times its waterfront position meant it was even used to hold inquests. Today it is a proper traditional free house of three small rooms, with a long-running Monday buskers' night and its own house ale, and it is a well-known local of the singer Sam Fender, whose awards have been known to sit behind the bar.

Best for: Best for: a genuine slice of Fish Quay history over a well-kept pint.

The Fishnet Tavern

A little further along the Low Lights sits The Fishnet Tavern, a pub whose premises carry one of the longest lines of names on the quay. It began life as the New Dolphin Inn, trading back at least to the 1840s, and has since been known as the Staith House and the Saltwater Tavern before its most recent reinvention. Whatever the sign above the door has said, there has been a pub on this spot serving Tyne fishermen and their families for the best part of two centuries.

Best for: Best for: a historic quayside pub with a tangle of names behind it.

The grand pubs North Shields has lost

The town's oldest and most storied inns are, sadly, no longer pulling pints. The Prince of Wales on Liddell Street stood on a pub site recorded as far back as 1627, once known as The Feathers and later the Old Wooden Dolly, before it took its royal name in the 1840s. Its handsome green-glazed 1927 building, run in later years by Samuel Smith's, has been closed since 2023.

Around the New Quay, the Porthole was a fine listed pub of 1897, designed by the Milburn brothers who went on to build theatres across the country. It has now been converted to offices. Nearby, the Chain Locker, with records on its site stretching back to the 1830s, was rebuilt in 1905 and finally turned into apartments in the early 2000s. Between them, these three tell the story of a riverside that was once thick with pubs, and of how much of that fabric has quietly slipped away.

A hard-drinking harbour town

It is worth remembering just how many pubs North Shields once had. By the late 19th century the crowded streets around the Fish Quay were said to hold well over a hundred licensed houses, serving a working population of fishermen, sailors, shipyard hands and merchants. The town's reputation for drink was such that it was, only half in jest, called one of the most drunken towns in England. The two survivors on the Low Lights are the last direct link to that riotous quayside world.

More North Shields history

If you enjoy the town's past, take a look at our guides to the interesting facts about North Shields and the North Shields heritage trail. For where to drink today, see our guides to the best bars and cocktails in North Shields and the best beer gardens in North Shields.

Know the history of a North Shields pub we have missed? Get in touch.