Newcastle City Guides

04/09/2025

A Tyneside Electric crossing High Level Bridge, 1960s. Gateshead East Station is just on the immediate right. You can see the familiar outline of the Turnbull Building on the horizon.

Image courtesy of the Armstrong Railway Photographic Trust. The trust was formed after the death in 1987 of lifelong railway enthusiast Jack Armstrong from Northallerton.

03/09/2025

Bay City Roller fans outside Newcastle City Hall May 1975. Were you one of them?
Thanks to John Falkland for this post from the North East Images Past and Present FB Page.

03/09/2025

Heaton Free Library which was opened by Earl Grey 6th October 1898.. The library was gifted to the city by Alderman William Haswell Stephenson who, two years earlier, had financed a library for the west end of the city in Elswick. When nobody else responded to the council’s appeal for another local benefactor to ensure that the people of the east end also had access to books, Stephenson put his hand in his pocket a second time... Today:- The redevelopment of Heaton Library into a mixed-use building has been completed by North East company Atlas Properties.

Work on the Victorian building started in 2010, with developers aiming to convert the empty library into a building fulfilling a range of roles. The project cost more than £2m, and has turned the structure overlooking Heaton Park into a mix of offices, a restaurant and apartments.

A great conversion-also where the dental practice I go to is located!

Thanks to Michael Preston of the Newcastle Upon Tyne History in Photographs FB Page for this post.

03/09/2025

At the start of summer, Newcastle University alumna Dr Irene Ighodaro was honoured with a blue plaque at the site of her former student accommodation in Jesmond 💙

Newcastle City Council chose to celebrate Irene's inspirational life as a doctor and social reformer. Read more: https://bit.ly/3TeZiQH

This is the former Easton Hall of residence in Eskdale Terrace in Jesmond.
Thanks to Newcastle University Alumni FB Page for this post.

02/09/2025

Love this picture by Ralph Hedley that can be seen in the Laing Art Gallery.
Blinking in the Sun (Cat in a Cottage Window)1881

Affectionately known as Ralph’s Cat, this picture is actually titled Blinking in the Sun. It was painted in 1881 by Ralph Hedley (31 December 1848 – 14 June 1913) who was a realist painter, woodcarver and illustrator, best known for his paintings portraying scenes of everyday life in the North East of England.

This tabby has that lazy, loving-the-sunshine expression on its face so typical of cats relaxing in the warmest spot they can find. It looks like a well-loved pet, with sleek fur.

The cottage is old, with a rough stone windowsill and cracked glass. But the flowers show that the cat’s owner loves beautiful things. There’s a geranium in an old earthenware pot – such a popular cottage plant as it’s so easy to grow. It’s partnered by yellow narcissi and red tulips.

02/09/2025

Bainbridge's, Market Street, Newcastle, 1952

In 1838, Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge went into partnership with William Alder Dunn and opened a drapers and fashion shop in Market Street. Emerson became the sole proprietor in 1855. By the 1870s there were more than 40 retail departments.

By 1892 Bainbridge's employed a staff of 600. During the Depression, the store collected payments in weekly instalments. This meant that people on low incomes could continue to buy from the shop.

In 1953, John Lewis took over ownership of the store, although it continued to operate under the name Bainbridge. In 1976 the store was relocated to the Eldon Square shopping centre. Newcastle City Council allowed the store to close Grainger Street for 3 days and staff at the Market Street store passed smaller items hand to hand along the street to the new store!

Their motto was 'Never knowingly undersold' and they would match another retailer's price for the same item if their price was lower than in Bainbridge. 2002 the store was re-branded as John Lewis after a vote by store employees. At the time, the Bainbridge name was one of the longest continuously trading department store brands in the world.

This post is a repeat of a 2020 one on our page, with some additional info added.

Can you remember Bainbridge's in Market Street or in Eldon Square, before the name change? What memories do you have? Do you still call it Bainbridge's?

02/09/2025

DID YOU KNOW….
..that in 1927 two new drinks launched in the Newcastle area. One was Newcastle Brown Ale which was launched after 3 years of preparation.

The other was Lucozade and this was advertied as a health tonic. This story has links to Professor Frederick Pybus, an influential clinician who graduated from Newcastle College of Medicine and worked at the RVI in Newcastle.(first photo)

During his student days working as a House-Surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in 1908, he lost a young patient following a seemingly successful operation. It was felt that this was because the child was starved, leading to them not being able to break down the chloroform used as an anaesthetic and resulting in a slow poisoning of the liver.

This event affected Pybus and when he became surgeon at the Fleming Memorial Hospital for Sick Children following his graduation, he made sure patients drank a glucose drink he devised prior to surgery and when they had a fever to stop this happening again.

An enterprising chemist in Barras Bridge called William Walker Hunter (trading as W. Owen & Son) provided the ingredients as a prescription, but noticing its popularity started making it himself and indeed perfected the recipe, with Pybus admitting his had “a taste of sulphur bi-oxide which most glucose had in order to prevent fermentation”.

Owen called this drink Glucozade, but, in 1938, Beecham pharmaceutical company realised the commercial potential and bought the formulae for the then princely sum of “about £10,000”, and Lucozade was born.

Its advertising slogan was "Lucozade aids recovery". The product was sold until 1983 as a carbonated, slightly orange-flavoured drink in a glass bottle wrapped in orange cellophane. Pharmacists sold it, children were given it when ill, and hospital visitors would regularly arrive with a bottle.

It was rebranded in 1978 as a "pick me up", and as a sports drink in 1983, to associate it with health rather than sickness. The company switched to a plastic bottle and introduced a range of flavours.

In 1989, the Beecham Group merged to form SmithKline Beecham, which further merged in 2000 to form GlaxoSmithKline.

In September 2013, GlaxoSmithKline sold Lucozade and another soft drink, Ribena, to the Japanese drinks conglomerate Suntory for £1.35 billion.

01/09/2025

Earsdon Village has a very interesting history. Why not join our Earsdon Walkabout guided tour to learn more about it? We meet for a 2.30pm start outside the Red Lion Pub on Front Street on Wednesday 10th October.

A short walk around a historical village with a magnificent church and memorial to a pit disaster that resulted in a change of legislation in the mining industry. The village dates back to the Iron Age, with tales of civil war, French prisoners and First and Second World Wars.
There is a path and some steps in churchyard going to Memorial. Therefore this stage of the walk is unsuitable for wheel chairs.
Booking will secure your place but walk-ups will be available on the day.
If you are a 2025 season ticket holder, remember you MUST bring along your ticket or you will be asked to pay for your tour.
Tour lasts approx 1.5hrs
Assistance dogs only. No other pets allowed.
£7 for adults
£5 for concessions (over sixties)

Book your place now on the link below.

With Newcastle City Guides

01/09/2025

Worswick Street bus station, 1976

This was built in 1929 by Northern General Transport and became the terminus and departure point for a fleet of red Northern buses.

You will remember it if you were travelling south of the Tyne. It closed in April 1996. What do you remember about this? Where did you travel to?

01/09/2025

Love this little item of information about Bedlington’s postbox from John Docherty of the Hidden Northumberland FB page.
Bedlington‘s Victorian postbox In 1840; the first letter ever sent with a postage stamp on it was sent to this post box.

31/08/2025

The Library in the Castle Keep c.1900. Photo courtesy of Newcastle Libraries.

31/08/2025

HIgh Bridge one of Newcastle's medieval streets looking from Grey Street towards Bigg Market. Photo taken by Laszlo Torday. Photo courtesy of Newcastle Libraries. Photo taken some time between the 1960s and 1975.

The businesses visible include Wards, T A Hall and Sons and The Duke of Wellington pub.