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Published: September 3rd 2018
”Ever been to Newcastle? North East of England. Very friendly people”. I was sitting outside a Quayside pub, quietly supping on my pint. There were 2 Italians at the next table. A serious amount of £20 notes were being exchanged between the characters. Wad after wad came out the pocket, were counted out and passed on. It was all very suspicious. A car sale? The proceeds of crime? There were the makings of a novel here. I then realised the idea had been taken. There will be one blog reader in Montreal, who will take note that I have been busy reading in the last few days.
I had returned from my Saturday route march to FA Cup glory at Newcastle Benfield, full of glowing recommendations from my day out. “We could perhaps have a night up there this week” suggested the Other Half. A full week on Teesside was testing her. The trains were back on stream. I bought an Anytime Short Distance Return only valid via Hartlepool. The complexities of train ticket options never cease to amaze me. Click here – a cheaper option could be available. I worked out the pros and cons. The Darlo
Molesley Street, Newcastle
...the first street in the world lit by electric bulbs route could save between 10 and 20 minutes, but you can’t see the sea from that train. We’ll take the cheaper coast option. The train chugs northward, leaving Teesside behind and heading into the former heartlands of County Durham coal. Hartlepool. Seaham. Sunderland. Sunderland railway station is an underground bunker. Light is restored as you head out over Monkwearmouth Bridge. The ironically named Stadium of Light is to our left. We are definitely not in Lisbon. The stations beyond are mostly in the domain of the Tyne & Wear Metro. We pull into Newcastle on time. The train is bound for Hexham via the Metro Centre, but most will alight here. Newcastle railway station is in sharp contrast to that at Sunderland. A seriously bold statement of Victorian architecture, that gives you the impression that you have arrived in the promised land. It was of course designed to have that effect. It still does today. After a slight hiccup with the ticket barriers, we walk out on to the street. The hotel is but a few minutes’ walk, although as it is not yet 10 am we would have to just drop our bags. I was surprised to find a
room was ready. IHG loyalty programme membership pays dividends.
The street signs are all marked with Grainger Town underneath the street name. I had passed the home of John Dobson on Saturday, chief architect of the Georgian city centre. Richard Grainger lived just across from the railway station. He was the builder behind much of the neoclassical structures still seen today. The third component in this creative wheel was John Clayton. He was the Town Clerk, who facilitated the vision of Dobson and Grainger and persuaded the Council to accept the majority of the plans put forward by Dobson and Grainger.
We walked on down Westgate to the Literary & Philosophical Society. The largest private library outside London is housed here. The library was started in 1793 and the subs were originally a guinea. Today, £95 buys you a reading and reference facility and access to a piece of history. The Society has been at the forefront of talks and presentations over the years. George Stephenson presented his miners lamp here and Joseph Swann showed his electric light bulbs. Moseley Street nearby became the first in the world to be lit by electric light
bulbs. The lecture theatre in the adjacent building is open to see. The Society currently stands at over 2,000 members, after a drive by the TV personality Alexander Armstrong who is a recent President. The views are best from the top of the upper deck, reached using the wrought iron spiral staircases. You are free to wander in and admire. There are surprisingly no airs and graces and the staff are friendly and keen to help.
The summer of 2018 has seen a 3 month Great Exhibition of the North. The plan has been to highlight the achievements of the North over the years and presumably make a few more folk – Festival bound - get off the Edinburgh train. The Institute building next door to the Lit where the lecture theatre is found had a fascinating timeline of Northern achievement – all built in Lego. The definition of North was using the London based version of events, so achievements as far south as Manchester, Liverpool and Hull were let into the party. My eyes were drawn to the local features – an Angel of the North, a miniature Baltic Art Gallery and the most impressive of
all was the fully working model of the Millennium Bridge. The room next door was full of creations built by non-professional Lego artists. I used to love creating stuff with Lego when I was a kid, so happily spent 10 minutes creating a futuristic form of transport – 6 wheels and rear wheel steering. I placed it among hundreds of other creations scattered on the display stands.
We cut across to the Bigg Market. It is so called after a type of barley and not because it is particularly big. The old Town Hall was situated at the river end until the move to the new concrete Civic Centre. The Bigg Market had featured on the early morning local news. The Victorian underground toilets had passed another phase in planning permission to be converted into a wine bar. The Market is now synonymous with nightlife, so it needs another wine bar. The Quayside and other areas have drawn away from the dominance, but it is still the centre of where many of the younger set would head for their night out. You can see all the lads and lasses here any weekend night, all with smiling faces.
Alcohol negates the need for a coat to keep out the bitter north east wind. It was all quiet now, but bars with names such as Filthys would be humming come the weekend. We occasionally would use one of the more traditional pubs left on the block, The Beehive, as our meeting place when in town for the visit of the SW6 gang to St James’.
The St Nicholas Cathedral will be a disappointment, if you are trying to compare it with Durham. There is a reason. Newcastle was once part of the Durham diocese and when the decision was made to separate, four churches put in for the privilege of being the seat of the Bishop. St Nicholas won, but is effectively an extended Parish Church. A Parish Church with a lean. Gas works about 200 years ago have destabilised the foundations of the Cathedral. A careful comparison of the pillars will reveal that the riverside is on the lean. The font is offset. The canopy above is not centred over it. The central pillars are not what they seem. The originals were found not to be substantial enough to carry the necessary weight. They lie
Newcastle United
......red and white - not allowed! encased within the extended pillars. A small section on the front left pillar is cut away to highlight the extensions. The Bishop’s seat has a seriously large canopy – a case of one-up-manship over Durham. A study of the stain glass will reveal the medieval windows are more Victorian – shipbuilding cranes are the giveaway.
The name of the city is derived from the New Castle. William the Conqueror send his son north after the Norman invasion to keep an eye on those troublesome Scots across the border and he established a fortress on the site of the old Roman defensive positions above the Tyne. The original Norman castle was extended and rebuilt by Henry II in 1172, but the only two sections remaining are the Keep and the outer Black Gate. The railway line splits the scene on the approaches to the bridge over the river. The Victorian need for steam outweighed any conservation thoughts, so the main feature in the city name is merely a sideshow to the arrival of the locomotives.
We walked down the hill to beneath the road bridge. It always reminds me of being in Sydney down here,
but the temperatures are not often as kind as they were today. The area has come up in the last 25 years and is now filled with restaurants and bars to cater to those in need of entertainment or sustenance. The other buildings are converted into boutique hotels and the ever present of the new British landscape – the Travelodge and Premier Inn – are represented. I wonder what Bob and Terry would make of it all. Thelma would have well impressed with the wine bar options. The Newcastle Arms looked slightly forlorn jammed into a space directly under the bridge. I suspect it didn’t need my sympathy and was a right little gold mine. We walk back up Grey Street – listed as the finest street in Britain by the esteemed listeners of Radio 4. There were many financial offices here, but they too seem to have given way to the need for places to entertain. The Grey Monument stands at the intersection at the top of the street. It was built in 1838 in honour of Charles Grey – Prime Minister in the early 1830s – who passed the Great Reform Act. The Act basically began the movement
of political power away from the ancient rural seats towards the great centres of population that had sprung up with industrialisation. The 40 metre statue was basically a traffic island, but is now the centre of the pedestrian shopping area and sits on top of the Monument Metro Station. The original statue was created by sculptor, Edward Hodges Bailey, who created Nelson for the column in Trafalgar Square. It lost it’s head in 1941 – not to a Luftwaffe bomb, but to a bolt of lightning. It got a new one in 1947, when things had calmed down a bit. The Theatre Royal was awaiting the arrival of the cast of Benidorm in early September. “As much fun as you can have without going on holiday”, or words to that effect. We wandered through the still impressive Central Arcade, home to J G Windows music store and seemingly little else these days. Starbucks, Cath Kidson and Pretty Green would probably disagree. Central Arcade is an Edwardian creation from 1906, built inside a wedge shaped building originally put up by Grainger after fire had destroyed part of the original structure. Newcastle somehow doesn’t seem to have embraced arcades like they have
in Leeds. We retreated to the hotel to get changed.
We headed out for a night on the Toon. It wasn’t the Bigg Market or the Quayside for us. We walked round to the Haymarket area in pursuit of the Town Mouse – current CAMRA pub of the year. It is tucked away in a basement opposite St Lawrence Church and would be easily missed. An A Board signified the presence. I sat with an Iron Dwarf and thought to myself, I could come here more often. The Iron Dwarf incidentally is not the new name for the Other Half, but a fine pale ale from the Flash House microbrewery people. I made a mental note to check out their brewery tap as and when I make a North Shields Northern League game.
There was a bit of a commotion at breakfast the following morning. I was nearly taken out carrying my 2 coffees by somebody who clearly thought she was competing to get on a Tokyo commuter train. She had nothing on her mate, who bizarrely decided to warm up a croissant in one of those industrial toasters you find at a hotel
breakfast buffet. Flames resulted. It transpired that it wasn’t the croissant that had caught fire. A sausage had also founded its way into the said toaster. The hotel staff smiled pleasantly, but were probably wanting to scream. We checked out, dropped our bags and headed out. The tallest crane on Tyneside had just set up off St James’ Way, ready to aid the construction of the Hadrian Tower. The finished article is set to be 27 stories and 82 metres. It will contain 162 apartments. The 3 bedroom upper floor options are £577,000. It wasn’t clear whether that includes a view of St James’ Park. I was more taken by the old tobacco factory building across the street. I showed the Other Half the other accommodation options in Leazes Terrace and Crescent and we walked through the University to the Hatton Gallery. The Hatton is tucked away in the Fine Arts building and contained some rather experimental pieces of art. The Hancock was next door. As well as a serious collection of all things stuffed – why did the Victorians preserve with such vigour? – there were a large amount of Roman artefacts from nearby Hadrians Wall. As part of
the Exhibition of the North, various inventions were scattered in between the dinasours and arrow heads. We drifted across the road to Carlton Terrace, where some old houses were being refurbished. The old City Hall was just behind the Northumbria University. The venue seemed only half open. A promotional poster suggested the Spice Girls were back together on the Wanabee Tour! I knew the papers say times were hard for Victoria’s fashion label, but this is surely false news. A plaque outside paid tribute to the late Alan Hull of Lindisfarne – fixtures at the venue. “The Fog on the Tyne is all his”. The current incarnation of the band are back just before this Christmas. Meet Me On the Corner?
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Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht
Got curious. Had to look it up! 'Man with Potential Selves' by Sean Henry, One of three painted bronzes sculptured by Sean Henry in 2003 in a location opposite Central Station. Henry is quoted as saying: “They are three alter egos of the same man. It is very important for people to realise that it is the same man and that he is an Everyman character.”