Explore Pilgrim Street With Us
A look at some of the great bars, shops, salons and entertainment centres of Pilgrim Street
Despite being a fairly short thoroughfare, Pilgrim Street is one of the most vibrant in the city. Home to a community of bars, restaurants, shops and an ever-changing character, there’s always something new to take in somewhere on Pilgrim Street.
So here’s our guide to some of the best locations on the street for you to explore, whether you’re out for food or drinks, clothes shopping or blasting zombies on a vintage arcade game.
Food
If you’re looking to find somewhere great to grab a coffee, Caffe Ginevra is definitely worth a visit. There’s a fine range of hot drinks (Ginevra is actually a coffee supplier) but they also sell snacks and some fine ice cream too.
If you fancy something a tad more substantial, Baps has been a local favourite for a while, especially with the lunchtime office crowd. Everything is fresh and made to order and the prices are pretty tasty too.
For hearty brunch dishes, delicious small plates and succulent sharers, look no further than Horticulture just off Pilgrim Street on Market Lane. A local favourite since opening its doors in 2019, the restaurant-bar specialises in good vibes, great cocktails and taste sensations.
Two popular destinations at the end of the day and especially after a night on the town are City Takeaway and Town Fry. Both offer an extensive range of all the things you like to eat after a night out – fish’n’chips, pizzas, kebabs and the rest – and both are open till the early hours of the morning!
Drink
Speaking of nights on the town, Pilgrim Street has some great places to grab drinks. Alvinos is an old favourite, renowned for its lively, vibey atmosphere, excellent DJs and a puntastic range of brilliant cocktails (our current jam is the Little Fluffy Cloud – gin, rum, raspberry and aquafaba).
If you prefer more old school pubs, The Market Lane should suit you (although it does serve some cocktails among the ales and ciders). It’s open till midnight every night too.
At the other extreme, Pepo is a secretive and classy cocktail bar serving a range of themed and often bespoke cocktails (plus some seriously delicious sharing platters in case you're feeling peckish) in its atmospheric bar next to sister operation Horticulture.
Shopping
Although not blessed with a large amount of shops, there are some outlets on Pilgrim Street that are definitely worth a visit. Take the Army & Navy Surplus Store, a proper old school army surplus store of nearly fifty years standing. It stocks everything you need if you’re a hardcore survivalist, a weekend camper, a festival goer or just have a thing for camo.
Of a similar vintage but a very different style, Leaf Clothing is all about personal service, great clothes and fine tailoring. They stock menswear, ladieswear, shoes and accessories and brands like Scotch & Soda, Jeffery West. Vilagallo, Dea Kudibal and Gibson.
And once you’ve got the threads you need, you could pop into Newcastle Jewellery Company who can make sure you have just the accessories you need to make it all pop.
Health & Beauty
If you’ve picked your perfect outfit for that big night out (or battle re-enactment), you want to look on point in other ways too. Perhaps you need a visit to Salon M, the hair and beauty salon chain started in 2008, with this flagship branch opening three years ago. Highly regarded and accredited for its hair expertise, the salon also offers a full range of treatments from haircuts and hot waxing to lashes and facials.
Junkyard Studios has a strong reputation for unique and stylish haircuts and colouring in a funky and inclusive atmosphere. They pride themselves on being a sustainable, vegan and cruelty-free salon too, so it's perfect for a guilt-free glow-up.
And if your hair is looking great and your lashes are lush, perhaps a visit to the Chinese Medical Centre will help you with your healthy glow too? The centre has been on Pilgrim Street for about 15 years offering traditional acupuncture, massages and medicines and would be happy to try and help with whatever ails you.
Fun
Everybody has a different idea of fun, don’t they? But Pilgrim Street boasts three very different destinations that should offer something to most people.
For a start there’s the Tyneside Cinema, widely regarded as one of the best arthouse cinemas in the country, with four screens showing everything from the latest blockbuster to low-budget independent documentaries. They host regular events and specialist screenings and have a café and coffee shop on site too.
If you get your fun from much smaller screens, NQ64 is for you. This loud, lively and colourful arcade bar opened last year and is a firm favourite with video games obsessives and people who fancy a few drinks over some nostalgic gaming.
Generally aimed at an older crowd is Hoochie Coochie, one of the best venues in town. In its twelve years of existence, this labour of love has become a well-respected home for music of black origin, hosting all manner of club nights from northern soul to swing and reggae with DJs like Norman Jay and Dimitri From Paris, and gigs including everyone from Candi Staton to The Jungle Brothers. It’s also a great bar in its own right – atmospheric and with some excellent drinks.
Coming Soon to Pilgrim Street
Pilgrim Street has had some fairly significant building and development work going on for years now, initially at the southern end but recently at the top where it meets Northumberland Street. Some long-unused and unloved buildings have been demolished and a carefully planned series of developments are in progress.
At the bottom of the street, Bank House is there to provide much-needed high quality office space as Newcastle becomes an evermore forward-thinking business hub, attracting new companies and bringing a lot of new footfall into the city centre.
Meanwhile, the area around Worswick Chambers and next door to 55° will be part of a new courtyard leisure development full of food, retail and social options that will cater both for the new Bank House occupants and city residents in general - all of which will connect the rather isolated end of Pilgrim Street to the city as a whole.
Bespoke Hotels, a boutique hotel chain, are now occupying the old fire and police stations and we can expect a grand new hotel with bars and restaurants on the ground floor very soon. And finally the site at the top of Pilgrim Street that has been developed remarkably quickly since Stack vacated is going to be the new HMRC offices, a development which will bring a great deal to the local economy and is likely to be finished by 2026.
All in all, these separate but related areas of development add up to exciting times for Pilgrim Street and the city, as the entire eastern side is redeveloped into new businesses, venues, retail outlets and more, bringing footfall, income and a real buzz into what has often been a neglected part of the city.
Pilgrim Street is an exciting, vibrant, constantly changing area in the heart of the city that’s going to go from strength to strength but already has plenty to offer, whether you need a hair cut, a BLT or an absurd but tasty cocktail.
