Often driven along there with mum and dad in the 50's. We lived in rural Lincolnshire on the way to see relatives. We knew it as the land of many pubs!
My father, Sam O'Neill, managed the Crooked Billet until he retired in the early 1970s. He had been there for at least 40 years. I was brought up there & lived there until my marriage in 1959
I only ever dared to go into one of those pubs once and that was one lunch time while I was doing a course at vickers back in '73. Usually if you weren't known by the regulars they made sure you left quick. lol.
McEwans scotch was a great pint, just look for the blue star. 🙂 Edit: As a young man in the 80’s I worked with a man who was in his late 50’s his name was Les and he used to tell me of his exploits as a young man and how him and his mates used to try to have a half in every bar on scotswood rd. He said that they never made it. Thanks for the memories.
I remember living near The Elswick at the bottom of our back lane it had spitoons on the floor plus sawdust too, but then again all the butchers shops had sawdust on the floors because of the blood. In the days when T.B. was rife along the Road how the hell we survived God only knows.
The Robin Adair had a roof covered by Green Westmoreland slate... It could not have looked more out of place. Whatever the architect for Newcastle and Scottish Breweries was thinking God only knows.
