Newcastle City Guides

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Newcastle City Guides

We aim to provide entertaining and fully researched walks in Newcastle, Gateshead and Tyneside We are all well trained guides who volunteer our services free.

Thank you for your interest in our activities

Newcastle City Guides was set up in 1963 by Newcastle Libraries following a request from a local councillor. All money raised goes to maintaining and developing our programme on a year by year basis

We deliver a wide range of walking tours as above as well as site tours eg Grey’s Monument, the Guildhall and All Saints Church. Come on one of our walks and you could discover;
- Quayside to view exciting developments on both sides of the Tyne
- Grainger Town the first purpose-built town centre in the country.
- Tyne Bridges - our matchless collection of bridges.
- Gateshead and its heritage and hidden history
- Themed walking tours – each season we deliver a variety of Heritage Walks e.g.discover Newcastle in the C18, see where it was trendy to be seen in the swinging 1960s, the men and women who influenced this area and beyond, or come on one of our graveyard tours – not gloomy at all! We continue to look at how we can bring the history and culture of the area to the public (locals and visitors)

We also provide private tours as well as working with schools, Universities and the Port of Tyne Authority. We provide information to members of the public, journalists, researchers and to NewcastleGateshead Initiative (NGI). We promote our activities via the NGI website and our Facebook site. In consequence of Covid-19, this year we have been adding photographs and information on a daily basis on our Facebook site. This will continue even when we are able to return to walking tours.

01/11/2026

One of the best parts of the Newcastle City Guides is the variety of people that you get to work with. This week one of our guides was working with Northumbrian UOTC and looking at the local contribution to the effort in the First World War. Pictured is the mess where this talk took place. This was very apt in the run up to Armistice Day. We wish the student officer cadets all the best with their training this year.

01/11/2026

High Friar Street, Newcastle. Photo taken by Laszlo Torday. The photo is undated but is sometime from the 1960s. Photo courtesy of Newcastle Libraries. High Friar Street was demolished to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre in the 1970s. The street linked Newgate Street and Grainger Street. The site of the entrance to the street (at the end of the picture) is where the Blackett Street entrance to Eldon Square Shopping Centre is.

01/11/2026

The Debating Chamber of the Civic Centre, Newcastle, taken when the building opened in 1968. The Council Chamber itself is lined with sculpted Cedar of Lebanon panels with green Swedish slate on the floor in front of the Lord Mayor’s Dias.

31/10/2026

The Likely Lads. Picture from the Likely Lads film (1976), at Whitley Bay

The Likely Lads, created by Ian La Frenais (from Monkseaton) and Dick Clement, ran for three series (1964 - 1966) and followed Terry Collier (James Bolam) and Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes), in Newcastle in the mid-1960s. Although it was never confirmed on screen, it was assumed to be set in Newcastle, with Tyneside becoming the backdrop for these episodes.

This show was followed by Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (1973 - 1974) and a film The Likely Lads (1976). Did you watch the Likely Lads?

31/10/2026

The City Hall, Newcastle, 1977. What are your memories of the City Hall? Photo courtesy of Newcastle Libraries.

31/10/2026

Newcastle from above,1960. The Civic Centre is under construction at the top of the picture and towards the left, St James' Boulevard is yet to be constructed. Photo courtesy of Newcastle City Council.

30/10/2026

We are saddened to hear of the death of Sir Patrick Stewart. In 2016 he came to Newcastle to perform No Man's Land alongside Sir Ian McKellen. What are your memories of Sir Patrick Stewart's career?

30/10/2026

The River God Tyne.

The image is one of nine ‘masks’ which adorned the Strand front of Somerset House in London when it was rebuilt in 1786.

They were designed by the architect Sir William Chambers. The centre one represented the ‘Ocean’ and the others represented eight English rivers: Thames, Mersey, Humber, Tweed, Medway, Dee, Tyne and Severn. They were carved in stone; five by Wilton and four (including the Tyne) by Carlini, who were two of the early Royal Academians.

The River Tyne is represented by a head having a beard in three plaits surmounted by a basket containing coals and surrounded by various emblems of trades of the district.

Photo courtesy of Newcastle Libraries.

30/10/2026

Literary & Philosophical Society Library (Lit & Phil), Westage Road, Newcastle. The Lit and Phil was founded in 1793 and this building was built between 1822 and 1825, designed by John Green. The building to the right is Westmoreland Place, which would be demolished to build the Mining Institute in the 1860s. The picture is undated. Image courtesy of Newcastle Libraries.

29/10/2026

The font at St Nicholas' Cathedral, Newcastle. Photo taken at Christmas 2021. Photo courtesy of the Newcastle City Guides.

Address

Newcastle Upon Tyne

Website

https://newcastlegateshead.com/newcastle-city-guides, http://newcastlecityguides.org.uk/

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