Solstice arrived on Newcastle’s Quayside at the beginning of summer. It took root on the Side, one of the few medieval streets left in Tyneside, which also boasts the Crown Posada pub, said to be about 240 years old. Newcastle is a brilliant and often overlooked city. When I was a child, on our pilgrimages from Carlisle some 60 miles away, it felt a bit like Manhattan: we’d eat stotties and Tudor crisps, then ransack Geordie Jeans for the latest ice-wash skin-tights. Coming back years later to visit Solstice by Kenny Atkinson is a considerably more refined experience.
