shewhomust | Baby's first meme

A feature in Saturday's Guardian asked six artists about their favourite part of Britain. Antony Gormley replied:

Best view: Looking out to Lindisfarne over the mud flats, about an hour up the coast from Newcastle in the car.

Best walk: Following Hadrian's Wall, north of Hexham, going west - big skies, open rolling country, and wonderful mature trees.

Best gallery: It's got to be the Baltic (0191-478 1810), Gateshead.

Best pub: The Free Trade (0191-265 5764), on the Tyne in Newcastle; and the Crown Posada (0191-232 1269), 31 The Side, tucked away by the quayside.

Best restaurant: Cafe 21 (0191-222 0755) in Newcastle, by the bridge. They serve wonderful food in a cafe adjoining The Live Theatre.

Best place to stay: The Vermont (0191-233 1010), Newcastle. If you get a room high enough, you have fantastic views over the river and the Tyne bridge, but you are still right in the middle of Newcastle.

This is interesting: reasonable choices, though very Newcastle / Gatehead centred. The questionnaire is clearly designed to allow people to talk about a region in which they don't live, but I thought it was an interesting way of looking at my home region, too.

So here are my answers:

Best view: High Cup Nick, for the way you walk over the top of the Pennines and the ground just falls away at your feet. A huge valley, cut by a tiny stream.

Best walk: Elephant trees / Ayhope Shield / Hamsterley / Doctor's Gate, of course. Though the walk inland up to Craster and Dunstanburgh Castle, and back along the coast, runs it a close second.

Best gallery: Durham's Oriental Museum..

Best pub: In the afternoon, when it's quiet, I'm drinking beer and the sun shines through the glass roof, the Bodega. In the evening, there's always somewhere to sit with a bottle of the house red in the Union Rooms.

Best restaurant: I have a favourite restaurant, but it isn't in the North-East. Nearer to home, the current favourite is probably the Pump House, though I'm always on the look out.

Best place to stay: How can I answer this question about the area I live in? My place, of course.
Though I wouldn't mind trying the Bishop's Suite in Durham Castle sometime.