History of Newcastle Upon Tyne - Victorian Period

Victorian Period

Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the partnership of Richard Grainger and John Dobson. Grainger was a builder who built many important buildings in Newcastle. Dobson was an architect, with whom Grainger worked on many projects. Between 1824 and 1826, Grainger built most of Eldon Square and Blackett Street. In 1829 Dobson and Grainger built Leazes Terrace and Leazes Crescent and in 1832, they completed the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street. In 1839 the two men completed their most ambitious project covering 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). They built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. Dobson was the one who provided the creative drive behind the project and Grey Street is considered to be his finest creation with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.

In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland.

In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or ‘chares’, destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.

In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory in order to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them.