Newcastle upon Tyne ( ) (often shortened to
Newcastle) is a
city and
metropolitan borough of
Tyne and Wear, in
North East England.
Situated on the north
bank of the River Tyne, the city
developed in the area that was the location of the Roman settlement called Pons Aelius
, though it owes its name to the castle
built in
1080, by Robert II, the eldest son
of William the
Conqueror. The city grew as an important centre for the
wool trade and it later became a major
coal mining area. The port developed in
the 16th century and, along with the shipyards lower down the
river, was amongst the world's largest
shipbuilding and ship-repairing
centres. These industries have since experienced severe decline and
closure, and the city today is largely a business and cultural
centre, with a particular reputation for nightlife.
Like most cities, Newcastle has a diverse cross section, having
areas of poverty to areas of affluence.
Among its main icons
are Newcastle Brown Ale, a
leading brand of beer, Newcastle
United F.C., a Football
League Championship team, and the Tyne Bridge
. It has hosted the world's most popular
half marathon, the
Great North Run, since it began in
1981.
The city
is the twentieth
most populous in England; the larger Tyneside conurbation
, of which Newcastle forms part, is the sixth most populous
conurbation in the United Kingdom. Newcastle is a member
of the
English Core Cities
Group and with
Gateshead the
Eurocities network of European cities.
The
regional nickname for people
from Newcastle and the surrounding area is
Geordie.
History
Roman
The first
settlement in what is now Newcastle was Pons Aelius
, a Roman fort and bridge across the River Tyne and given the family name of the
Roman Emperor Hadrian who founded it in the 2nd century AD.
The population of Pons Aelius at this period was estimated at
2,000.
Hadrian's Wall
is still visible in parts of Newcastle,
particularly along the West Road. The course of the
"Roman Wall" can also be traced eastwards to the Segedunum
Roman fort in Wallsend
- the
wall's end and to the supply fort Arbeia
in South Shields
. The extent of Hadrian's Wall was , spanning
the width of Britain; the wall incorporated
Agricola's Ditch and was constructed primarily to
prevent unwanted immigration and incursion of
Pictish tribes from the north, not as a fighting line
for a major invasion.
Anglo-Saxon and Norman
After the
Roman departure from
Britain, completed in 410, Newcastle became part of the
powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria
, and became known throughout this period as
Monkchester. After a series of conflicts with the
Danes and the devastation
north of the
River Tyne inflicted by
Odo of Bayeux after the 1080 rebellion
against the
Normans, Monkchester was all but
destroyed.
Because of its strategic position, Robert Curthose, son of William the Conqueror, erected a wooden
castle
there in the
year 1080 and the town was henceforth known as Novum
Castellum or New Castle.
Middle Ages
Throughout the
Middle Ages, Newcastle
was England's northern fortress. Incorporated first by Henry II, a
new charter was granted by Elizabeth in 1589.
A high stone wall
was built around the town in the 13th century, to
defend it from invaders during the Border
war against
Scotland. The Scots king
William
the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle in 1174, and
Edward I brought the
Stone of Scone and
William Wallace south through the town.
Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times
during the 14th century, and was created a
county corporate with its own
sheriff by
Henry
IV in 1400.
16th to 19th century
From 1530
a royal act restricted all shipments of coal from Tyneside to
Newcastle
Quayside
, giving a monopoly in the coal trade to a cartel of
Newcastle burgesses known as the Hostmen.
This
monopoly, which lasted for a considerable time, helped Newcastle
prosper, but it had its impact on the growth of near-neighbours
Sunderland
, causing a Tyneside
and a Wearside
rivalry that still exists. In the Sandgate
area, to the east of the city and beside the river, resided the
close-knit community of
keelmen and their
families. They were so called because they worked on the keels,
boats that were used to transfer coal from the river banks to the
waiting
colliers, for export to
London and elsewhere. In 1636 about 7,000 out of 20,000 inhabitants
of Newcastle died of
plague.
During the
English Civil War,
Newcastle supported the king and in 1644 was stormed ('with roaring
drummes') by
Cromwell's Scots
allies, based in pro-Parliament Sunderland. The grateful King
bestowed the
motto "Fortiter Defendit
Triumphans" ("Triumphing by a brave defence") upon the town.
Ironically, Charles was imprisoned in Newcastle by the Scots in
1646-7.
In the
18th century, Newcastle was the country's fourth largest print
centre after London, Oxford
and Cambridge
, and the Literary and Philosophical
Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of
books in several languages, predated the London Library
by half a century. Newcastle also became a
glass producer with a reputation for brilliant
flint glass.
Newcastle's development as a major city, however, owed most to its
central role in the export of
coal. The phrase
taking coals to
Newcastle was first recorded in 1538. In the
19th century,
shipbuilding and heavy
engineering were central to the city's
prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the
Industrial Revolution. Innovation in
Newcastle and surrounding areas included the development of
safety lamps,
Stephenson's Rocket,
Lord Armstrong's artillery,
Be-Ro flour,
Joseph
Swan's
electric light bulbs, and
Charles Parsons' invention
of the
steam turbine, which led to the
revolution of marine propulsion and the production of
cheap electricity.
Geography
Newcastle
is situated in the North East of
England, in the ceremonial county of Tyne
and Wear and the historical and traditional county of Northumberland
. The city is located on the northern bank of
the
River Tyne at a
latitude of 54.974° N and a
longitude of 1.614° W.
The
geology of the area is most famous for
its large deposits of
coal. Whilst the local
bedrock consists mainly of
carboniferous rocks,
millstone grit and
oolite are also present.
The climate in Newcastle is
temperate,
although significantly warmer than some other locations at a
similar latitude due to the warming influence of the
Gulf Stream (via the
North Atlantic Drift).
Being in the rain shadow of the North Pennines
, it is among the driest cities in the UK.

Side, a street in Newcastle near the
Tyne Bridge
In large parts, Newcastle still retains a
medieval street layout.
Narrow alleys or
'chares', most of which can only be traversed
by foot, still exist in abundance, particularly around the riverside
. Stairs from the riverside
to higher parts of the city centre and the extant
Castle
Keep
, originally recorded in the 14th century, remain in
places. Close, Sandhill and Quayside
contain modern buildings as well as structures
dating from the 15th-18th centuries, including Bessie
Surtees House
, the Cooperage and Lloyds Quayside Bars,
Derwentwater House and the currently unused Grade I-listed 16th
century merchant's house at 28-30 Close.
The city has an extensive
neoclassical centre, largely
developed in the 1830s by
Richard
Grainger and
John
Dobson, and recently extensively restored.
Broadcaster and
writer Stuart Maconie describes
Newcastle as England's best-looking city and Grey Street, which curves down from
Grey's
Monument
towards the
valley of the River Tyne, was
voted as England's finest street in 2005 in a survey of BBC Radio 4 listeners. A portion of Grainger Town was demolished in the 1960s to
make way for the Eldon
Square
Shopping Centre,
including all but one side of the original Eldon Square
itself.
Immediately to the northwest of the city
centre is Leazes
Park
, established in 1873 after a petition by 3,000
working men of the city for "ready access to some open ground for
the purpose of health and recreation". Just outside one
corner of this is St James'
Park
, the stadium home of Newcastle United F.C. which dominates
the view of the city from all directions.
Another
green space in Newcastle is the vast
Town
Moor
, lying immediately north of the city centre.
It is
larger than Hyde
Park
and Hampstead Heath
put together and the freemen of the city have the right to
graze cattle on it. Unlike other cities where similar rights
exist, they often take advantage of this.
The right
incidentally extends to the pitch of St. James' Park
, Newcastle United
Football Club's ground
, though this
is not exercised, although the Freemen do collect rent for the loss
of privilege. Honorary freemen include
Bob Geldof,
Nelson
Mandela,
Alan Shearer and the
Royal Shakespeare Company.
The Hoppings funfair, said to be the largest travelling
fair in Europe, is held here annually in June.
In the south eastern corner is
Exhibition Park, which contains
the only remaining pavilion from the North East Coast Exhibition of
1929. Since the 1970s this has housed the Newcastle Military
Vehicle Museum; this is closed until further notice because of
structural problems with the building - originally a temporary
structure.
The
wooded gorge of the Ouseburn
in the east of the city is known as Jesmond Dene
and forms another popular recreation area, linked
by Armstrong Park and Heaton Park to the Ouseburn Valley
, where the river finally reaches the River Tyne.
Notable
Newcastle housing developments
include Ralph Erskine's the Byker Wall
designed in the 1960s and now Grade II* listed. It is on UNESCO
's list of
outstanding 20th century buildings.
Newcastle's thriving
Chinatown lies in the
north-west of
Grainger Town, centred
on Stowell Street. A new Chinese arch, or
paifang, providing a landmark entrance, was
handed over to the city with a ceremony in 2005.
The
UK's
first
biotechnology village, the "Centre for
Life
" is located in the city centre close to the
Central
Station
. The village is the first step in the City
Council's plans to transform Newcastle into a
science city.
Newcastle
was voted as the Best City in the North in April 2007 by
The Daily Telegraph
newspaper - beating Liverpool
, Manchester
, Sheffield
and Leeds
in an
online poll conducted of its readers.
Quayside and bridges on the Tyne
The
Tyne Gorge between Newcastle on the north
bank and Gateshead
- a separate town and borough - on the south bank,
is famous for a series of dramatic bridges, including the Tyne Bridge
of 1928 which was built by Dorman Long of Middlesbrough
, and Robert
Stephenson's High Level Bridge
of 1849, the first road/rail bridge in the
world. Large-scale regeneration has replaced former shipping
premises with imposing new office developments; an innovative
tilting bridge, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge
was commissioned by Gateshead Council and has integrated the
older Newcastle
Quayside
more closely with major cultural developments in
Gateshead, including the BALTIC
Centre for Contemporary Art
and the Norman
Foster-designed The Sage Gateshead
music centre. The Newcastle &
Gateshead
Quaysides are now a thriving, cosmopolitan area
with bars, restaurants and public spaces. As a tourist
promotion, Newcastle and Gateshead have linked together under the
banner "
NewcastleGateshead", to
spearhead the regeneration of the North-East.
The
River Tyne had a temporary Bambuco
Bridge
in 2008 for 10 days, it was not made for walking,
road or cycling, but was just a sculpture.
Grainger Town
The historic heart of Newcastle is the Grainger Town area.
Based
around classical streets built by Richard Grainger, a builder and developer,
between 1835 and 1842, some of Newcastle upon Tyne's finest
buildings and streets lie within this area of the city centre
including Grainger Market, Theatre
Royal
, Grey Street, Grainger
Street and Clayton
Street. These buildings are predominately four storeys, with
vertical dormers, domes, turrets and spikes. Richard Grainger was
said to 'have found Newcastle of bricks and timber and left it in
stone'. Of Grainger Towns 450 buildings, 244 are
listed, of which 29 are grade I and 49 are
grade II*.
The development of the city in the 1960s and 1970s saw the
demolition of part of
Grainger Town as
a prelude to the modernist rebuilding initiatives of
T. Dan Smith, the
leader of
Newcastle City
Council. A corruption scandal was uncovered involving Smith and
John Poulson, a
property developer, and both were
jailed. Echoes of the scandal were revisited in the late 1990s in
the
BBC TV mini-series,
Our Friends in the
North.
Economy
Newcastle played a major role during the 19th-century
Industrial Revolution, and was a
leading centre for
coal mining and
manufacturing.
Heavy industries in Newcastle declined in the
second half of the 20th century; office, service and retail
employment are now the city's staples.
Newcastle
is the commercial, educational and, in partnership with nearby
Gateshead
, the cultural focus for North East England. As part of
Tyneside, Newcastle's economy contributes around £13 billion to the
UK
GVA.
The Central Business District is in
the centre of the
city, bounded by Haymarket,
Central
Station
and the Quayside
areas.
Retail
There are several major shopping areas in Newcastle city centre.
The
largest of these is the Eldon Square Shopping Centre
, which incorporates the first and largest Fenwick department store, and a
John
Lewis
store, formerly known as Bainbridges. As
Bainbridges, this store was possibly "...one of the earliest of all
department stores". Eldon Square is currently undergoing a full
redevelopment. A new bus station, replacing the old underground bus
station, was officially opened in March 2007.
The wing of the
centre, including the undercover Green Market, near Grainger Street
and The
Gate
was demolished in 2007 so that the area could
be redeveloped.
The main
shopping street in the city is Northumberland Street
. In a 2004 report, it was ranked as the most
expensive shopping street in the UK for rent, outside of London.
Other
shopping centres in Newcastle include the relatively modern Eldon
Garden and Monument
Mall
complexes, the Newgate Centre, Central
Arcade
and the traditional Grainger Market. Outside the city
centre, the largest suburban shopping areas are Gosforth
and Byker
.
The
largest Tesco
store in
the United Kingdom is located in Kingston Park
on the edge of Newcastle.Close to Newcastle,
the largest indoor shopping centre in Europe, the MetroCentre
, is located in Gateshead
.
Demography
Population
According to the
UK
Government's
2001
census, the city of Newcastle has a population of 189,863,
whereas the
unitary authority of
Newcastle has a population of around 259,500. However, the
metropolitan boroughs of
North Tyneside (population c.190,000),
South Tyneside (population c.
150,000)
and Gateshead
(population c.200,000) are also part of the
Tyneside conurbation, giving the
Newcastle-Gateshead metropolitan
area a population of 799,000. According to the same
statistics, the average age of people living in Newcastle is 37.8
(the national average being 38.6). 93.1% of the population are of
white British ethnic background (the national average being 91.3%).
Many people in the city have Scottish and Irish ancestors. There is
a strong presence of
Border Reiver
surnames, such as Armstrong, Charlton, Elliot, Johnstone, Kerr,
Hall, Nixon, Robson etc. Other
ethnic
groups in Newcastle, in order of
population size, are
Pakistani at 1.9% and Indians at 1.2%.
There are also small but significant Chinese, Jewish and Eastern
European (Polish, Czech Roma) populations. There are also estimated
to be between 500 and 2,000
Bolivians in Newcastle,
which is the largest percentage for any UK city (up to 1% of the
local population).
The city is largely
Christian at 70.6%;
Muslims form 3.6%, and over 16% have
no religion.
According to 2008 figures, the city's ethnic make-up is as
follows:
- White – 90.5%
- South Asian – 5.2%
- Black – 1.1%
- Chinese – 1.1%
- Mixed-race – 1.2%
- Other – 0.8%
The
regional nickname for people
from Newcastle and the surrounding area is
Geordie.
The Latin term
Novocastrian, which can equally be applied to residents of
any place called
Newcastle, is also used for ex-pupils of the city's Royal
Grammar School
.
Year and current total population
- 1801 – 33,322
- 1851 – 80,184
- 1901 – 246,905
- 1911 – 293,944
- 1921 – 309,820
- 1931 – 326,576
- 1941 – 333,286
- 1951 – 340,155
- 1961 – 323,844
- 1971 – 308,317
- 1981 – 272,923
- 1991 – 277,723
- 2001 – 259,573
- 2007 – 271,600
- 2008 – 273,600
Dialect
The dialect of Newcastle is known as
Geordie, and contains a large amount of
vocabulary and distinctive word
pronunciations not used in other parts of the
United Kingdom. The Geordie dialect has much of its origins in the
language spoken by
Anglo-Saxon mercenaries, who were employed by the Ancient
British people to fight
Pictish invaders,
following the withdrawal of the
Romans
from Britain in the 4th century. This language was the forerunner
of
Modern English; but while the
dialects of other English regions have been heavily altered by the
influences of other foreign languages—particularly
Latin and
Norman–French—the Geordie dialect retains
many elements of the old language. An example of this is the
pronunciation of certain words: "dead", "cow", "house" and "strong"
are pronounced "dede", "coo", "hoos" and "strang"—which is how they
were pronounced in the Anglo-Saxon language. Other Geordie words
with Anglo-Saxon origins include: "larn" (from the Anglo-Saxon
"laeran", meaning "teach"), "burn" ("stream") and "gan" ("go").
Some words used in the Geordie dialect are used elsewhere in the
northern United Kingdom. The words "bonny" (meaning "pretty"),
"howay" ("come on"), "stot" ("bounce") and "hadaway" ("go away" or
"you're kidding"), all appear to be used in Scottish dialect; "aye"
("yes") and "nowt" (IPA://naʊt/, rhymes with
out,"nothing") are used elsewhere in
northern England. Many words, however,
appear to be used exclusively in Newcastle and the surrounding
area, such as "Canny" (a versatile word meaning "good", "nice" or
"very"), "bait" ("food"), "hacky" ("dirty"), "netty" ("toilet"),
"hoy" ("throw"), "hockle" ("spit").
Health
Newcastle Hospitals
NHS Foundation
Trust has one of the lowest mortality rates in the country and
is ranked seventh in the country for confidence in doctors.
Newcastle
has three large teaching hospitals: the Royal
Victoria Infirmary
, the Newcastle General Hospital
and the Freeman Hospital
, which is also a pioneering centre for transplant surgery.
In a
report, published in early February 2007 by the Ear Institute at
the University
College London
, and Widex, a Danish hearing
aid manufacturer, Newcastle was named as the noisiest city in the
whole of the UK, with an average level of 80.4 decibels. The report claimed that these noise
levels would have a negative long-term impact on the health of the
city's residents. The report was criticised, however, for attaching
too much weight to readings at arbitrarily selected locations,
which in Newcastle's case included a motorway underpass without
pedestrian access.
Culture
Nightlife
Newcastle has a reputation for being a fun-loving city with many
bars, restaurants and
nightclubs. More
recently, Newcastle has become popular as a destination for
Stag and
Hen
parties. Newcastle was in the top ten of the country's top night
spots, and
The Rough Guide to
Britain placed Newcastle upon Tyne's nightlife as Great
Britain's no. 1
tourist
attraction.
There are
notable concentrations of pubs, bars and nightclubs around the Bigg
Market, and the Quayside
area of the city centre. There are many bars
on the Bigg Market, and other popular areas for nightlife are
Collingwood
Street, Neville Street, the Central Station
area and Osborne Road in the Jesmond
area of the city. In recent years
"The
Gate
" has opened in the city centre, a new indoor
complex consisting of bars, upmarket clubs, restaurants and a
12-screen Empire multiplex cinema.
Focused
on the Times Square area near the Centre for Life
, the "Scene" is the centre of Newcastle's gay scene and hosts many bars and pubs and two
clubs. James Green was a pioneer of the gay scene in
Newcastle and his initial work campaigning for gay rights has been
hugely beneficial to young gay men wanting action on a night out.
The community has seen much expansion in the past five years, with
further growth planned in the future.
The city has a wide variety of restaurants such as
Italian,
Indian,
Persian,
Japanese,
Greek,
Mexican,
Spanish,
American,
Polish,
Malaysian,
French,
Mongolian,
Moroccan,
Thai food , Vietnamese, and has a
Chinese village with many
Chinese restaurants
on Stowell Street. There has also been a growth in
premium restaurants in
recent years with top chefs.
Significant changes in the last ten years have been increased
opening hours, more upmarket bars, a greater range of clubs and
some of the older traditional pubs closing, although many have been
revamped and remain very popular.
The
music video for
Pet Shop Boys 1990 hit "
So
Hard" shows Newcastle's
nightlife
around various parts of the city on a Friday night. The extended
mix of the track also shows even more shots of the city's
nightlife, clearly late on a Friday night.
Theatre

Frontage of the Theatre Royal
The city contains many theatres.
The largest, the Theatre
Royal
on Grey Street, first opened in 1837.
It has
hosted a season of performances from the Royal Shakespeare Company for over
25 years, as well as touring productions of West
End
musicals. The Journal Tyne Theatre
hosts smaller touring productions, whilst other
venues feature local talent. Northern
Stage
, formally known as the Newcastle Playhouse and
Gulbenkian Studio, hosts various local, national and international
productions in addition to those produced by the Northern Stage
company. Other theatres in the city include the
Live
Theatre
, the People's Theatre
, the
Round
and the Jubilee Theatre
. NewcastleGateshead was voted in 2006 as
the arts capital of the UK in a survey conducted by the
Artsworld TV channel.
Poetry
Newcastle has a strong reputation as a poetry centre.
The Morden Tower
, run by poet Tom Pickard
is a major venue for poetry readings in the North East, being the
place where Basil Bunting gave the
first reading of Briggflatts in
1965.
Festivals and fairs

The arch to Chinatown, opposite St.
James' Park
In February, Newcastle's
Chinatown is at
the centre of a carnival of colour and noise as the city celebrates
the
Chinese New Year.In early March
there is the
NewcastleGateshead
Comedy Festival, this event makes a return to the region since the
last event in 2006, it is hoped it will now continue as an annual
event. The Newcastle Science Festival, now called
Newcastle ScienceFest returns annually
in early March.
The
Newcastle Beer Festival, organised by
CAMRA
, takes place in April. In May, Newcastle and
Gateshead
host the Evolution Festival, a music festival held
on the Newcastle and Gateshead Quaysides
over the Spring bank
holiday, with performances by acts from the world of Rock, Indie and
Dance music. The biennial
AV Festival of international electronic
art, featuring exhibitions, concerts, conferences and film
screenings, is held in March.
EAT! NewcastleGateshead, a festival of
food and drink, runs for 2 weeks each year in early May. Also held
in late May is the North East Art Expo, a festival of art and
design from the regions professional artists.
The Hoppings, reputedly the largest travelling
fair in Europe, takes place on Newcastle
Town Moor
every June. The event has its origins in the
Temperance
Movement during the early 1880s and coincides with the annual
race week at High Gosforth Park.
Newcastle
Community Green Festival, which claims to be the UK’s biggest free
community environmental
festival, also takes place every June, in
Leazes
Park
. The Northern Rock Cyclone, a cycling
festival, takes place within, or starting from, Newcastle in June.
The Ouseburn Festival, a family oriented weekend festival near the
city centre, incorporating a "Family Fun Day" and "Carnival Day",
is held in late July.
Newcastle
Mela, held on the late
August bank holiday weekend, is an
annual two-day
multicultural event,
blending drama, music and food from
Punjabi,
Pakistani,
Bengali and
Hindu
cultures. NewcastleGateshead also holds an annual International
Arts Fair.
The 2009 event will be in the Norman Foster
designed Sage
Gateshead
Music and
Arts Centre in September. In October, there is the Design
Event festival—an annual festival providing the public with an
opportunity to see work by regional, national and international
designers.The SAMA Festival, an East Asian cultural festival is
also held in early October.
Music
The 1960s saw the internationally successful rock group
The Animals, emerge from Newcastle night spots
such as Club A-Go-Go on Percy Street. Other well-known acts with
connections to the city include
Sting,
Bryan
Ferry,
Dire Straits and more
recently
Maxïmo Park. There is also
a thriving
underground music scene
that encompasses a variety of styles, including
Drum and Bass,
doom
metal and
Post-rock.
Lindisfarne are a folk-rock group with a
strong Tyneside
connection. Their most famous song,
"
Fog on the Tyne" (1971), was
covered by
Geordie ex-footballer
Paul Gascoigne in 1990.
Venom, reckoned by many to be the originators
of
black metal and extremely influential
to the
extreme metal scene as a whole,
formed in Newcastle in 1979.
Folk metal
band
Skyclad, often regarded as the
first
folk metal band, also formed in
Newcastle after the breakup of
Martin
Walkyier thrash metal band,
Sabbat.
The predominant record company in Newcastle is
Kitchenware Records (circa 1982),
previously home to acclaimed bands such as
Prefab Sprout,
Martin Stephenson and the
Daintees and
Fatima Mansions,
the management of
The Lighthouse
Family and home to recent successes
Editors as well as other bands of varied
genres.
The 1990s boom in
progressive
house music saw the city's
Global
Underground record label corner the market in the mix CD market
with the likes of
Sasha,
Paul Oakenfold,
James Lavelle, and
Danny Howells recording mix compilations. The
label is still going strong today with offices in London and New
York, and new releases from
Deep Dish and
Adam Freeland.
Concert venues

Metro Radio Arena
The
largest music venue in the city is the
11,000-seat Metro Radio Arena
, which is situated in the south of the city
centre near the Centre
for Life
.
The
2,000-seat Newcastle
City Hall
holds a number of music events every month,
particularly featuring solo
artists. Both of the city's universities also have large
performance venues (each holding around 2,000 people).
On 14
October 2005, the 2,000 capacity O2 Academy Newcastle
opened, providing a new music venue in the city
centre. The opening night was headlined by
The Futureheads and the profile of the venue
has attracted a greater variety of bands to play in the city. The
O2 Academy Newcastle is the newest in a string of
Academies to be opened across the
UK.
Other
popular music venues in the city include The Head of Steam, which
is near Newcastle Central railway
station
, and Trillians Rock Bar at Princess Square.
The Cluny
and the Cumberland Arms are both situated in the Ouseburn
Valley
between the city centre and Byker
.
Museums and galleries
There are
several museums and galleries in Newcastle, including the Discovery
Museum
, the Great North Museum
, Gallagher & Turner
Gallery, the Laing Art Gallery
, and the Newburn Hall Motor
Museum.
In Film
The 1971 film
Get Carter features the
city of Newcastle as one of its stars. The film was shot on
location in and around Newcastle and offers an opportunity to see
what Newcastle looked like in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Sport
The city has a strong sporting tradition.
Football club Newcastle United has been based at
St James'
Park
since the club was established in 1892, although
any traces of the original structure are now long gone as the
stadium now holds more than 52,000 seated spectators.
The city
also has a non-League football
club, Newcastle
Benfield
. Also based in Newcastle are
Guinness Premiership rugby union side
Newcastle Falcons and 1996 Pilkington
Shield winners
Medicals RFC.
The Metro Radio Arena is home to
Newcastle Vipers ice
hockey team and
Newcastle
Eagles basketball team.
The city's speedway team Newcastle Diamonds are based at Brough
Park in Byker
, a venue
that is also home to greyhound
racing. The Brough Park promotion entered a team in the
1929 English Dirt Track league. The team known as the Diamonds
operated before the war and, after an open season in 1945, the
Diamonds operated from 1946 to 1951. In 1949 the team were known as
the Magpies. The track reopened in 1961 and has operated, with a
few breaks, since then.The first track to open in Newcastle was at
Gosforth Stadium but this only operated from mid 1928 until 1930 on
a regular basis and a single meeting was staged 1931. The Gosforth
promotion entered a team in the 1930 Northern League.
Newcastle
Racecourse
at High Gosforth Park
holds regular meets, including the prestigious race
for the Northumberland Plate,
first run in 1838, which takes place in June each
year.
Newcastle
also hosts the start of the annual Great
North Run, the world's largest half-marathon in which participants race over
the Tyne
Bridge
into Gateshead
and then towards the finish line away on the coast
at South
Shields
. Another famous athletic event is the
Blaydon Race (a road race from
Newcastle to Blaydon
), which has taken place on 9 June annually since
1981, to commemorate the celebrated Blaydon Races horse racing.
Governance
Newcastle is governed using the leader and
cabinet system, and the
executive is
Liberal Democrat, as they have 49
councillors against the
Labour Party's 29. No other parties hold
seats on the city's council.
For the purposes of City Council elections, Newcastle is divided
into 26
electoral wards.
Transport
Airport
Newcastle
International Airport is located approximately from the city centre
on the northern outskirts of the city near Ponteland
. The airport handles over five million
passengers per year, and is the tenth largest, and the fastest
growing regional airport in the UK, expecting to reach 10 million
passengers by 2016, and 15 million by 2030. As of 2007, over 90
destinations are available worldwide.
Rail

Newcastle Central Station
Newcastle railway station, also known as Newcastle Central Station,
is a principal stop on the
East
Coast Main Line and
Cross
Country Route. Opened in 1850 by
Queen Victoria, it was the
first covered railway station in the world and was much copied
across the UK. It has a
neoclassical facade, originally
designed by the architect John Dobson, and was constructed in
collaboration with
Robert
Stephenson. The first services were operated by the
North Eastern Railway company.
The
city's other mainline station, Manors
, is to the east of the city centre.
Train
operator National Express
East Coast provides a half-hourly frequency of trains to
London King's Cross
, with a journey time of about three hours.
CrossCountry and
First TransPennine Express
operate regular services to many major destinations, whereas
Northern Rail provides local and
regional services.
Metro
The city is served by the
Tyne and
Wear Metro, a system of suburban and underground railways
covering a lot of Tyne and Wear. It was opened in five phases
between 1980 and 1984, and was Britain's first urban light rail
transit system; two extensions were opened in 1991 and 2002. It was
developed from a combination of existing and newly built tracks and
stations, with deep-level tunnels constructed through Newcastle
city centre.
A bridge
was built across the Tyne, between Newcastle and
Gateshead, and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in
1981. The network is operated by Nexus and
carries over 37 million passengers a year, extending as far as
Newcastle Airport, Tynemouth, South Shields
and South
Hylton
in Sunderland
. The Metro system is the first in the UK to
have mobile phone antennae installed in the tunnels.
The Metro consists of two lines. The Green line starts at Newcastle
Airport, goes through the city centre and into Sunderland,
terminating at South Hylton. The yellow line starts at St. James
Park, runs north of the river alongside Byker towards Whitley Bay,
before returning to the city, on to Gateshead and terminates at
South Shields.
Road
Major
roads in the area include the A1
(Gateshead Newcastle Western Bypass), stretching
north to Edinburgh
and south to London; the A19 heading south past Sunderland
and Middlesbrough
to York
and
Doncaster
; the A69 heading west to
Carlisle
; the A167, the old "Great
North Road", heading south to Gateshead
, Chester-le-Street
, Durham
and Darlington
; and the A1058 "Coast
Road", which runs from Jesmond
to the east coast between Tynemouth
and Cullercoats
. Many of these designations are recent—upon
completion of the Western Bypass, and its designation as the new
line of the A1, the roads between this and the former line through
the Tyne
Tunnel
were renumbered, with many
city centre roads changing from a 6-prefix to their present
1-prefix numbers.
Bus
There are 3 main bus companies providing services in the city;
Arriva Northumbria,
Go North East and
Stagecoach North East.
Arriva services
mainly operate from Haymarket Bus Station
to Gosforth
and the northern surburbs, North Tyneside and Northumberland
. Go-Ahead operates mainly from Eldon
Square Bus Station
and Grainger Town to
Gateshead
, Metro Centre and
County Durham. Stagecoach in Newcastle is the main
operater in the city proper, providing services mainly between both
the West and East ends via the city centre. Bus Services in
Newcastle upon Tyne and the surrounding boroughs part of the
Tyne and Wear area are coordinated by
Nexus, the
Tyne and Wear
Passenger Transport Executive.
Other major departure points are Pilgrim
Street for buses running South of the Tyne via Gateshead
, and Blackett Street/Monument for services to the
East or West of the city. Many bus services also pass Newcastle
Central Station
, a major interchange for Rail and Metro
Services. QuayLink is a hybrid
electric bus service operated to the Quayside.
Newcastle Coach Station
, near the railway station, handles long distance
bus services operated by National
Express.
Cycle
Newcastle is accessible by several mostly traffic-free
cycle routes that lead to the edges of the city
centre, where cyclists can continue into the city by road, using
no car lanes.
The traffic-free
C2C cycle route runs along
the north bank of the River Tyne,
enabling cyclists to travel off-road to North Shields
and Tynemouth
in the east, and westwards towards Hexham
.
Suburban cycle routes exist, which utilise converted trackbeds of
former industrial
wagonways and industrial
railways.
A network of signed on-road cycle routes
is being established, including some designated on-road cycle lanes
that will lead from the city centre to the suburbs of Gosforth
, Heaton
and Wallsend
.
Water
Newcastle has access to an international
Ferry Terminal, at North Shields
, which offers services to destinations including
IJmuiden
(near Amsterdam
). A ferry to Gothenburg
, Sweden, operated by Danish DFDS Seaways, ceased crossing at the end of October
2006. The company cited high fuel prices and new competition
from
low-cost air services as the
cause. From summer 2007, Thomson cruise lines includes Newcastle as
a port of call on its Norwegian and Fjords cruise.
Education
The city
has two universities - Newcastle University
and Northumbria University.
Established as a School of Medicine and
Surgery in 1834, and becoming independent from Durham
University
in 1963, Newcastle University is now one of the
UK’s leading international universities. It won the coveted
Sunday
Times University of the Year award in 2000. Newcastle
Polytechnic was granted university status in 1992, becoming the
University of Northumbria at Newcastle. Northumbria University, as
it is currently known, was voted 'Best New University' by
The Times Good University Guide
2005. The latter university also won a much coveted company award
of the "Most IT enabled organisation" (in the UK), by the IT
industry magazine
Computing.
There are eleven
LEA-funded 11 to 18 schools and
seven
independent schools with
sixth forms in Newcastle.
There are a number
of successful state schools, including
Gosforth
High School
, Heaton Manor School
, St Cuthbert's High School
, St.
Mary's Catholic Comprehensive School
, Kenton Comprehensive School
and Sacred Heart
. The largest co-ed independent school is the Royal
Grammar School
. The largest girls' independent school is
Central
Newcastle High School
. Both schools are located on the same
street in Jesmond. Another notable girls' independent school is
Newcastle Upon Tyne Church High School located at Tankerville
Terrace.
Newcastle School for Boys is the
only independent boys' only school in the city and it situated in
Gosforth
. Newcastle College
is the largest general further education college in the North
East and is a beacon status college;
there are two smaller colleges in the Newcastle area.
Religious sites
Newcastle has two cathedrals, the Anglican
St.
Nicholas
, with its elegant lantern tower of 1474, and
the Roman Catholic St.
Mary's
, designed by Augustus Welby Pugin. Both
cathedrals began their lives as parish churches. St Mary's became a
cathedral in 1850 and St Nicholas' in 1882.
Another prominent
church in the city centre is the Church
of St Thomas the Martyr
which is the only parish church in the Church of England without a parish and
which is not a peculiar.
One of
the largest evangelical Anglican churches in the UK is Jesmond
Parish Church
, situated a little to the north of the city
centre.
Newcastle is home to the only Bahá’í Centre in North East England, the centre has served
the local Bahá’í community for over 25 years and is located close
to the Civic Centre in Jesmond
.
Newcastle was a prominent centre of the
Plymouth Brethren movement up to the 1950s
and some small congregations still function. Among these are at the
Hall, Denmark Street and Gospel Hall, St Lawrence.
Media
Local
newspapers that are printed in
Newcastle include
Trinity Mirror's
Evening Chronicle and
The Journal, the
Sunday Sun as well as the
Metro
freesheet.
The Crack
is a monthly style and
listings
magazine similar to London's
Time
Out. The adult comic
Viz originated in Jesmond, and
The Mag is a fanzine for Newcastle United
supporters.

Two converted warehouses provided the
base for Tyne Tees on City Road until 2005
Tyne Tees Television, the
regional contractor for
ITV, was based at City
Road for over 40 years after its launch in January 1959. In 2005 it
moved to a new facility on The Watermark business park next to the
MetroCentre in Gateshead. The entrance to studio 5 at the City Road
complex gave its name to the 1980s music television programme,
The Tube.
BBC North East and Cumbria is
located to the north of the city on Barrack Road, Spital
Tongues
, in a building known, as the result of its
colouring, as the Pink Palace. It is from here that the
Corporation broadcasts the
Look North
television regional news programme and
local radio station
BBC Radio Newcastle.
Independent local radio
stations include
Metro Radio and sister
station
Magic 1152, which are both based
in a building on the Swan House roundabout on the north side of the
Tyne Bridge.
Galaxy
105-106 broadcasts across Newcastle from its studios in nearby
Wallsend
. 100-102 Real
Radio and 97.5 Smooth Radio
both broadcast from Team
Valley
in Gateshead.
NE1fm launched on June 8 2007, the first full
time
community radio station in the
area.
Newcastle Student Radio is run by students
from both of the city's universities, broadcasting from Newcastle University
's student's union building
during term time. Radio Tyneside has been
the voluntary
hospital radio service
for most hospitals across Newcastle and Gateshead since 1951,
broadcasting on 1575
AM.
Newcastle is one of the first in the UK to have its city centre
covered by
wireless internet access.
Notable people
Charles Avison, the leading British
composer of concertos in the 18th Century, was born in Newcastle
upon Tyne in 1709 and died there in 1770.
Cardinal Basil
Hume,
Archbishop of
Westminster (1976-1999) was born in the city in 1923.
Other
notable people born in or associated with Newcastle include:
engineer and industrialist Lord
Armstrong, engineer Robert
Stephenson, modernist poet Basil
Bunting, Lord Taylor, the Portuguese
writer Eça de Queiróz who
was a diplomat in Newcastle from late 1874 until April 1879 - his
most productive literary period,, The
Prime Minister of Thailand
Abhisit Vejjajiva,
singers Eric Burdon, Sting, multiple circumnavigator David Scott Cowper, Neil Tennant, Mark
Knopfler, Cheryl Cole and current
AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson, ,
entertainers Ant and Dec, international
footballers Peter Beardsley,
Michael Carrick and Alan Shearer, David A. T. Stafford, historian and author.
Twin cities
Newcastle also has a "friendship agreement" with
In 2009
Jill Halfpenny, Anthony Hutton and former Newcastle United
striker Les Ferdinand joined forces
with low-cost airline easyJet to back a bid
to twin Newcastle with Alicante
in Spain
after it was revealed that the city was one of
easyJet's most popular routes from Newcastle International
Airport
.
Foreign consulates
The following countries have
consular
offices in Newcastle:
- Honorary Consul for the Federal
Republic of Germany
: Grainger Suite, Dobson House, Gosforth, NE3
3PF
- Honorary Consulate of Italy: 63 High Bridge, NE1 1DU
- The Royal Norwegian Consulate: 14 Grey Street, NE1 6AE
- Honorary Consulate of Sweden: 2 Osborne Road, Jesmond, NE2
2AA
- Honorary Consulate of Iceland: 1/3 Lansdowne Terrace, Gosforth,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE3 1HN
- French Consulate Agency: Dobson House, Regent Centre, Gosforth,
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE3 3PF
- Belgian Consulate: 30 Cloth Market, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne
and Wear, NE1 1EE
See also
References
Notes
- Roman Britain Pons Aelius - 'The Aelian
Bridge'
- GoogleBooks George Patrick Welch,
Britannia, the Roman Conquest and Occupation of Britain,
Wesleyan University Press, 1963
- Forum UNESCO University and Heritage 10th
International Seminar “Cultural Landscapes in the 21st
Century”, Social Housing as Cultural Landscape: A Case
Study of Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne pp3, John Pendlebury, Tim
Townshend and Rose Gilroy, Newcastle University (April 2005 -
revised June 2006). Retrieved 24 November 2008
- Pointer, Graham, The UK's Major Urban Areas at
statistics.gov.uk, Retrieved on 2007-04-08
- Core
Cities.com, Retrieved on 2007-04-08
- Eurocities, Retrieved on 2007-08-19
- C.Michael Hogan (2007) Hadrian's Wall, ed.
A. Burnham, The Megalithic Portal
- Stephen Johnson (2004) Hadrian's Wall, Sterling
Publishing Company, Inc, 128 pages, ISBN 0-7134-8840-9
- British History Historical Account of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Eneas Mackenzie, 1827. Date accessed: 24
November 2008
- Newbottle - Newcastle-upon-Tyne British History Online
- retrieved 18th August 2009
- Plague. 11th Edition Encyclopedia Britannica.
- http://www.oldandsold.com/articles02/glass-n.shtml
- Flannery, Peter. Retrospective - An interview with the
creators of the series. Included as a bonus feature on the
Our Friends in the North DVD
release. (BMG DVD 74321 941149).
- Exercise: Bolivia|publisher=International
Organization for
Migration|publication-place=London|accessdate=2008-11-29|ref=CITEREFInternational
Organization for Migration2007
- RGS
Alumni - the Old Novocastrians' Association Retrieved
on 2007-01-14
- Newcastle upon Tyne District: Total
Population
- Restaurants in Newcastle & North East restaurants,
eating out, places to eat in Newcastle & North East restaurant
guide UK
- Restaurants in Birmingham, Newcastle, Nottingham,
Derby - The Gourmet Society UK
- http://mordentower.org/
- http://www.newcastlesciencefest.com/
- http://www.northeast-artexpo.com/
- http://www.samafestival.org
- untitled
- http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/titlepage.asp?isbn=1852245271
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2000/dec/23/biography1
Bibliography
- Tyneside: A History of Newcastle and Gateshead from
Earliest Times, Alistair Moffat and George Rosie, Mainstream
Publishing (10 Nov 2005), ISBN 1-84596-013-0
- History of Northumberland and Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Leslie W. Hepple, Phillimore & Co Ltd (1976), ISBN
0-85033-245-1
External links