Pubs & Clubs:

Sunderland & South Tyneside CAMRA supports all pubs & clubs in the branch area serving cask ales & real cider. We also encourage any pub in the area to try selling cask ale.
The number of pubs serving cask ale at any given time is fluid as properties change landlords & ownership.

In recent years many pubs have struggled to survive, often due to “punitive” taxation & what is known as the beer tie.
In this current economic environment some local pubs face the most difficult times seen for many years. CAMRA asks anyone using this site to be our information source & keep us informed of changes to the information held on these pages. Please contact us with any pub related information.

DATABASES of PUBS:
    • All Sunderland & South Tyneside CAMRA area real ale pubs are listed on the CAMRA national pub database called WHATPUB.  CLICK HERE.
    • SPILE is used by Northeastern CAMRA branches as a North East regional Pubs Database, it is also available to all. CLICK HERE

Our Branch Awards:

Each year we select our:

  • “Pub of the Year” or PotY
  • “Cider Pub of the Year” or CPotY
  • “Club of the Year” or CotY

The winning venues go forward into CAMRA’s national competitions.

We also nominate a number of pubs or clubs as local entries for the CAMRA Good Beer Guide (GBG).

The processes we use to select the three award winners & how we select our GBG entries can be found detailed in this download: GBG entry selection & *otY processes (updated 2024.)

In addition to awarding a “Pub of the Year” we maintain a “Top 12” list of pubs:

Pub of the Year 2024 the "Top 12"

PubLocation20232022202020192018
1stThe MarineSouth Shields1st1st1st2nd3rd
2ndThe SteamboatSouth Shields2nd2nd3rd3rd1st
3rdCask LoungeSouth Shields5th3rd7th--
4thThe Dun CowSunderland City Centre4th8th10th5th6th
5thFitzgeraldsSunderland City Centre3rd5th5th7th12rd
6thThe StepsWashington-7th11th6th10th
7thThe Ship IsisSunderland City Centre6th4th2nd1st2nd
8thBlues Micro PubWhitburn8th6th---
9thThe AvenueSunderland North11th10th6th8th-
10thThe Harbour ViewSunderland North7th9th4th4th5th
11thThe Guide PostRyhope-----
12thThe PeacockSunderland City Centre-----
Well done to all on the list, with almost 80 "Real Ale" venues in the Sunderland & South Tyneside branch area it is an achievement to appear anywhere on this list!