Platform Bar

You're standing on the actual platform at Hexham station, and instead of grabbing a sad coffee from a chain, you duck into Platform Bar. It's got that wonderful railway-station-pub energy that makes you feel like you're either catching a train somewhere interesting or you've just arrived somewhere worth being. The bar sits right there on Platform 2, so you get genuine movement and atmosphere—commuters, travellers, locals who've worked out it's far better than town-centre alternatives. It's unpretentious and properly useful, the kind of place that works just as well for a quick pint before your train as it does for settling in with mates on a Friday.