Touring old Newcastle

Last week we were in Newcastle Upon Tyne to see some friends and go to a gig. I have not explored this city much, so we took the opportunity to look around.

We stayed at a Premier Inn in the city centre. These are often soulless buildings, but this one is in the old Co-operative building. The staircase has some art deco features with some little metal men holding the handrail. There were some displays of artefacts from the building. You might miss this if you took the elevator as the the rest of the building seems to have been totally remodelled.

Just behind the hotel was Chinatown with the traditional arch. Beyond that is St. James' Park where Newcastle United play.

By chance I noticed some old buildings down an alley and we found the Blackfriars Priory that dates back to the 13th century. It was a slum in more recent times and was nearly demolished, but was saved and now houses a restaurant.

We were just wandering with no planned route and so these discoveries were quite random.

This building has been a theatre and a cinema.

A lot of old cities had fortification to defend them from attackers. Many of these were lots due to later developments, but Newcastle has managed to keep part of their old walls.

Somewhere I had heard of is the Literary and Philosophical Society (known as the Lit & Phil). This was a venue for many famous scientists and is still a library that anyone can use, but you need to be a paid member to take books out.

Inside the 200 year old building retains many original features. Glass roof lets in lots of natural light. They have plenty of modern books as well as CDs, but also lots of old books, some of which are displayed in cabinets. There were people in there studying, playing chess and chatting over a coffee.

The city name suggests that it had a castle and it still does. There was something there in roman times, but the 'new' castle was built by the Normans about 1000 years ago. Since then the railway was built through the city.

Next to the castle is the Black Gate with various ruins around it. You can wander there for free, but we did not have time to go in the buildings. You can just see the tower of the cathedral.

We walked down a lot of steps to the riverside. This would have been a busy place with lots of ships coming in, but is more touristy now. The fish market building is impressive.

The river has several bridges with the Tyne Bridge being the most iconic. It was built by the company that also constructed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There is a colony of kittiwake gulls living in the bridge. The shiny building is the Sage concert venue.

It was time to go home and so we headed to the old station which is also an impressive building. You can stop here on a train from London to Edinburgh passing the historic cities of York and Durham. We have used that line quite a few times.

We saw all this in a morning and would need a lot more time to see all the city has to offer, so we will be back.