Features
Grainger Town: Why Newcastle’s Victorian Heart Still Beats
Richard Grainger rebuilt Newcastle in the 1830s and created one of the finest planned urban environments in Britain. Most of it still…
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Newcastle Stories
Independent recommendations, neighbourhood knowledge and the stories shaping the city.
Arts & Culture
The Ouseburn Valley: Newcastle’s Creative Quarter
The Ouseburn Valley went from dereliction to one of Newcastle's most interesting neighbourhoods. Here's the story.
history
Alan Shearer: The Record, the Return, and What It Meant
Alan Shearer could have gone anywhere. He went home. The story of his £15 million transfer to Newcastle United in 1996 and…
Features
Brian Johnson, Sting and Newcastle’s Music Heritage
Newcastle has produced some of rock music's most unlikely heroes. Here's the full story.
Features
How the Quayside Went From Derelict to Desirable
The Quayside's transformation from post-industrial wasteland to one of the UK's most admired waterfronts is one of Britain's great regeneration stories.
history
The Bigg Market in the 1990s: What Happened and What Changed
In the 1990s, the Bigg Market became shorthand for excess. The reputation stuck longer than it deserved, but the story of how…
history
Ant and Dec: How Byker Made Britain’s Most Trusted Double Act
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly met on Byker Grove in 1989. Three decades later they are the most trusted double act in…
history
Newcastle’s Night Economy After the Bigg Market: A City Reinventing Itself
The Bigg Market was the image of Newcastle nightlife for two decades. The city has moved a long way since then -…
history
The Miners’ Strike 1984: Northumberland, Durham and What Happened Here
The 1984-85 miners' strike lasted a year and broke the back of the British coalfields. In Northumberland and Durham, communities at Easington,…
history
The Great North Run: Why 57,000 People Run Through Newcastle Every September
Brendan Foster dreamed up the Great North Run in 1980. The first race in 1981 drew 12,000 runners. Today it is the…
Features
Moving to Newcastle: What Nobody Tells You
Moving to Newcastle? Here's everything they don't put in the relocation brochures.
history
Tyneside Cinema: The Picture House That Refused to Die
The Tyneside Cinema on Pilgrim Street opened in 1937 as a newsreel theatre and has been Newcastle's most important cultural venue ever…
history
Seven Bridges Over the Tyne: Newcastle’s Greatest Icons
The bridges of the Tyne are the most recognisable thing about Newcastle. Seven crossings, each from a different era, each telling a…
history
The Blaydon Races: Why a Victorian Song Defines a City
On 9 June 1862, Geordie Ridley first sang the Blaydon Races at Balmbra's Music Hall in the Cloth Market. Over 160 years…
history
The Great North Run: Why 60,000 People Run to South Shields
Every September, 60,000 runners leave Newcastle's city centre and run 13.1 miles to South Shields. The Great North Run is the world's…
history
The Battle of Elswick: Armstrong’s Works and the Armed Tyne
By the 1880s, the Elswick Works on the Tyne employed 25,000 people and supplied warships and artillery to navies across the world.…
history
Byker Wall: Ralph Erskine’s Radical Housing Experiment
Byker Wall is one of the most discussed housing developments in post-war British architecture. Ralph Erskine involved the community in designing their…
history
The Turbinia: Charles Parsons and the Steam Turbine That Changed Everything
In 1897, Charles Parsons drove the Turbinia uninvited through Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Naval Review at 34 knots, faster than any ship…