Benwell - Famous Residents and Facts

Famous Residents and Facts

  • Alan Robson MBE (born 1st Oct 1955) is a British radio presenter who presents the late night phone-in show, NightOwls on Metro Radio, a local commercial station in the North East
  • Richard Grainger who built the markets, The Monument, Grainger Street, Theatre Royal and Grey Street is buried in St James’ Churchyard in Benwell
  • William George Armstrong / Lord Armstrong (hence Armstrong Road in Benwell) started up munitions production after 1850 which created the demand for the terraced housing in Benwell
  • Joseph Swan established the world’s first electric light bulb factory in Benwell. The factory supplied the lights for Mosley Street in Newcastle which was the first street in the UK to be lit by electric light
  • John Buddle was a local mining engineer, who invented and developed the means of mining coal deeply and thereby began the industrial development of the area in the early 19th century. He is commemorated in "Buddle Road"
  • Richard Scot, the son of John Scot, bounded 200 acres (0.81 km2) of land to make a deer park. This has been attributed as the origin of Scotswood
  • R.T. Atkinson was a successful engineer who owned High Cross House, that once stood around the current area of Elswick Road and the corner's of Maria St., Caroline St. and St. John's Road. Hence the origin of Atkinson Road
  • William Surtees had Benwell Hall built. He was the brother of Bessie Surtees (made famous by her elopment with John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon)
  • Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher was born in Benwell in 1903 and lived at 142 Clara Street. Using the name Rudolf Abel he was arrested in New York in 1957 as a Soviet spy and was the person exchanged for Gary Powers, the pilot in the U2 bomber incident, in 1962

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Famous quotes containing the words famous, residents and/or facts:

    “Martyrdom ... is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.”
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    “In most nineteenth-century cities, both large and small, more than 50 percent—and often up to 75 percent—of the residents in any given year were no longer there ten years later. People born in the twentieth century are much more likely to live near their birthplace than were people born in the nineteenth century.”
    —Stephanie Coontz (20th century)

    “A judge is not supposed to know anything about the facts of life until they have been presented in evidence and explained to him at least three times.”
    —Parker, Lord Chief Justice (1900–1972)