NE1’s Guide to Newcastle’s Pink Triangle

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of the Pink Triangle to Newcastle’s gay scene: although attitudes have changed and members of the LGBTQ+ community may feel increasingly comfortable in venues throughout the city, for a long time this rapidly-changing area between Central Station and Metro Arena was a safe space, a social network and a place of fun and community. Here’s our guide to some of the places you need to know about.

Dine

Image: Blonde Barrel

A big bar right on Times Square, Blonde Barrel is a curious but successful blend of sports bar and drag venue, so you can watch the match and see fabulous acts like Vanity Milan. They also do food – a tasty selection of pub grub like loaded fries, pizzas, chicken and sides.

Another bar offering a sports meets drag combo that also offers plenty to fill your tummy, The Tipsy Cow in Blandford Street has live entertainment, televised sport, a sun trap terrace and a generally fun and quirky vibe. The food is pub grub again – sliders, dippers, nachos and the like – and there’s even a bottomless brunch deal.

Drink

Image: Bobby's

As well as being a drag flagship (a dragship, if you will, even hosting the northern leg of Drag Race), Bobby’s on Scotswood Road is also a big sports bar – there are screens throughout with Sky and BT Premier sports. All this plus DJs, cabaret, variety shows and more!

Image: The Yard

A little further along Scotswood Road you’ll find The Yard, Newcastle’s oldest gay pub, a mainstay of the city’s scene for forty or so years. There’s always something going on at this veritable institution – from cabaret to karaoke, games nights to club nights. Upstairs you’ll find Oscars, the affiliated cocktail bar, sophisticated and decadent just as Wilde intended.

Image: Rusty's

Another Times Square institution is Rusty’s, a late-night cabaret bar that’s a sister venue to the Blonde Barrel. There’s always something going on, from cabaret sets to DJs playing cheesy disco, and there’s a mixed crowd and cheap drinks. A popular midweek haunt.

Image: The Eagle

Bringing something a bit different to Scotswood Road is The Eagle, which styles itself as ‘the only Amsterdam style leather, denim and uniform bar in the North East’. This predominantly male fetish bar has a sociable upstairs bar and a more specialist basement bar, with something for everyone.

Scotswood Road is also home to The Bank Bar, another bar bringing entertainment, inclusivity and general good times (including cheesy tunes) to the scene. There’s karaoke and cabaret too, right in the heart of the busiest part of the Triangle.

Queens on Marlborough Crescent arrived on the scene with a bang back in 2020, taking over the site of The Central. It’s a big brash multi-storey bar where cocktails, a wildly varied music selection and a sense of warmth and inclusivity are the order of the day.

Nightlife

Image: Boulevard

There are three main nightclubs in the heart of the Triangle, all offering late night fun for a mixed community. On Churchill Street, Boulevard is all about the performance, the glitz and the glamour: expect dancing girls and boys, drag queens, Hollywood romance, comedy and more. There’s always an array of packages to choose from.

If you like things a little more full-on, Switch on Scotswood Road is probably more to your taste. The official ‘pre-bar’ to Powerhouse, Switch is only open on Fridays and Saturdays (till 3am) and has two floors of pumping hits to keep you entertained before you head over to Powerhouse a couple of minutes around the corner on Westmorland Road. This vast venue – Newcastle’s oldest gay club – offers a variety of spaces across its four floors to suit different tastes and is open till 4am every night (5am on Saturday!). It’s inclusive, loud, easy to get lost in and guaranteed #goodtimes.

Image: Powerhouse

The Pink Triangle packs a lot of fun into a fairly small area, from drag acts to cabaret, leather bars to pumping club sounds. It’s lively, inclusive, welcoming and rapidly changing. And it’s important!