Best Places to Work Remotely in Hexham

Working from home in the Tyne Valley has a lot going for it, but sooner or later the kitchen table loses its charm. The good news is that the town centre is compact, so a library, a big pub with long opening hours and several cafes are all within a few minutes' walk of each other. Here's an honest guide to where to set up, and what to expect when you do.

The free option: Hexham Library

Hexham Library

If you need a reliable connection and a calm room without paying for anything, start at Hexham Library. It sits inside the Queen's Hall building on Beaumont Street, opposite the Abbey grounds, and Northumberland County Council lists Wi-Fi among its facilities, along with public PCs with internet access and Microsoft Office. There's A3 and A4 printing and photocopying in black and white and colour, plus free PDF scanning, which is handy if you have a contract to sign and send back.

Opening hours are generous for a market-town library: 9am to 6pm on Mondays and Fridays, 9am to 5pm Tuesday to Thursday, and 9:30am to 5pm on Saturday, closed on Sunday. Note that the public computers switch off 15 minutes before closing, so don't leave a big print job until the last minute. It's a library rather than a workspace, so keep calls short and take them outside.

Best for: Best for: free Wi-Fi, printing and scanning, and quiet focused work.

Queen's Hall Café

The best thing about the library is what's on the other side of the wall. The café at Queen's Hall Arts Centre serves brunch, lunch and hot and cold drinks from Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, and its cheese and bacon scone has a loyal following. Work in the library in the morning, then step through for lunch without moving your laptop more than a few metres.

Best for: Best for: a lunch break that doesn't mean packing up and walking across town.

Early starts and long days

The Forum

The Forum, the Wetherspoon in the restored 1937 Art Deco cinema on the Market Place, is the most practical option if you want to start early or stay late. It opens at 8am every day, Wi-Fi is listed among its facilities, and the room is large enough that a single person with a coffee and a laptop won't feel in the way, particularly mid-morning before the lunch crowd arrives. The panoramic windows over the Market Place make it a lighter space than you might expect from a pub.

It gets noisier from lunchtime, and evenings and market days are busy, so treat it as a morning base rather than a quiet office.

Best for: Best for: an 8am start, cheap refills and a big room where nobody minds you staying.

Chain coffee on Fore Street

Costa Coffee and Caffè Nero

Fore Street has two familiar chain branches a short walk apart. Costa Coffee at 3-5 Fore Street and Caffè Nero at number 36 both offer sit-in seating in the middle of the shopping street, and chains like these tend to be relaxed about customers lingering with a laptop over a couple of drinks. If you're relying on their customer Wi-Fi for a video call, check it's working before you settle in, and expect weekend afternoons to be the busiest times.

Best for: Best for: a predictable menu and a seat for an hour or two between errands.

Independent cafes

Hexham's real strength is its independents, covered in more detail in our guide to the best cafes in Hexham. Most are small, busy at lunchtime and built for conversation rather than spreadsheets, so be considerate: arrive mid-morning or mid-afternoon, keep ordering, and give up your table when a queue forms.

Small World Cafe

Small World Cafe at 27-28 Market Place has large picture windows looking out over the Abbey, the Moot Hall and the market square, which makes it one of the most pleasant places in town to answer a few emails over a coffee. It's one of the town's highest-rated cafes, so it fills up at lunchtime; a short session in the morning works best.

Best for: Best for: a quick email catch-up with the best view in town.

Rising Cafe

Rising Cafe, beside the Benson Monument at the top of Beaumont Street, is a social-enterprise cafe with a cosy 1940s feel, open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Every purchase supports the Rising Cafe charity, which is a nice reason to buy a second coffee. It's a short walk from the library if you want a change of scene.

Best for: Best for: an afternoon change of scene where your coffee money does some good.

Wentworth Cafe

A little away from the Market Place bustle, Wentworth Cafe on Wentworth Place, by the leisure centre, is an independent cafe serving breakfast, brunch and lunch. It's a good fit if you combine a swim or gym session with a working morning, and it's handy for the main car parks on that side of town.

Best for: Best for: pairing a workout with a working brunch.

Meetings and coworking

The Beaumont Hotel

When you need to meet a client face to face rather than on a screen, The Beaumont Hotel on Beaumont Street offers a flexible range of corporate options for meetings, arranged through its events team. Its restaurant serves lunch from 12pm to 3pm, which makes it a polished setting for a working lunch.

Best for: Best for: client meetings and a smart working lunch.

What about coworking?

We couldn't find a dedicated coworking space with bookable hot desks in Hexham itself. Advance Northumberland, the county council's development company, runs hot desks at its workspaces in Blyth, Ashington (Wansbeck) and Berwick, currently £15 a day with fast fibre broadband, meeting rooms and refreshments, available Monday to Friday. For a Hexham-based freelancer that's a long trip, but worth knowing about. For wider help setting up or growing a business locally, see our guide to business support in Hexham.

A remote working day in Hexham

Start at The Forum at 8am for an early coffee and a clear inbox. Move to the library when it opens for a focused morning and anything you need to print. Step through to the Queen's Hall Café for lunch, then finish the afternoon with a coffee overlooking the Market Place at Small World Cafe. All four are within about five minutes' walk of each other.

Know another laptop-friendly spot in Hexham, or a coworking space we've missed? Let us know via our contact page.