Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is also the most populous city of North East England. Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius and the settlement later took the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose.
Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, North Tyneside and South Tyneside. It is bordered by Northumberland to the north and Durham to the south; the county boundary was formerly split between these counties with the border as the River Tyne.
The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length is 73 miles (118 km). It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.
Gateshead is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Millennium Bridge, The Sage, and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, and has on its outskirts the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture.
Newcastle Central Station is a major railway station in Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the East Coast Main Line, around 268 miles (432 km) north of London King's Cross. It is the primary national rail station serving Newcastle upon Tyne, with local rail services provided by the Tyne and Wear Metro network to which the station is connected to by Central Station Metro station, situated beneath the national rail station.
MetroCentre is a railway station on the Tyne Valley Line, which runs between Newcastle and Carlisle via Hexham. The station, situated 3 miles 39 chains west of Newcastle, serves Metrocentre, Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
Eldon Square is a shopping centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It opened in 1976 and was built on the site of Old Eldon Square, a famous part of Georgian Newcastle designed by John Dobson in about 1824. This redevelopment, which left only the eastern terrace standing, has been criticised, with one writer calling it "the greatest single example of architectural vandalism in Britain since the war".
Dunston is a railway station on the Tyne Valley Line, which runs between Newcastle and Carlisle via Hexham. The station, situated 2 miles 23 chains west of Newcastle, serves the suburb of Dunston, Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
The King Edward VII Bridge is a railway bridge spanning the River Tyne between Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, in North East England. It is a Grade II listed structure. The King Edward VII bridge has been described as “Britain’s last great railway bridge”.
Saltwell Park is a Victorian park in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. Opened in 1876, the park was designed by Edward Kemp and incorporates the mansion and associated grounds of the Saltwellgate estate owner, William Wailes, who sold his estate to Gateshead Council for £35,000. Upon opening, it became known as "The People's Park". The park was expanded in 1920 when the council purchased the adjacent gardens to the Saltwell Grove estate and added these to the park. This extended the park's total size to 55 acres (22 ha). Towards the end of the 20th century, the park had fallen into disrepair, but between 1999 and 2005, it was subject to a £9.6 million restoration project, funded collaboratively by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Gateshead Council and is now host to around 2 million visitors per year.
Gateshead TMD was a railway traction maintenance depot situated in Gateshead, England. The depot code was 52A during the steam era and GD later on.
Lobley Hill is located in the west of the old County Borough of Gateshead within the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, North East England having been previously part of the parish of Whickham.
Dunston Power Station refers to a pair of adjacent coal-fired power stations in the North East of England, now demolished. They were built on the south bank of the River Tyne, in the western outskirts of Dunston in Gateshead. The two stations were built on a site which is now occupied by the MetroCentre. The first power station built on the site was known as Dunston A Power Station, and the second, which gradually replaced it between 1933 and 1950, was known as Dunston B Power Station. The A Station was, in its time, one of the largest in the country, and as well as burning coal had early open cycle gas turbine units. The B Station was the first of a new power station design, and stood as a landmark on the Tyne for over 50 years. From the A Station's opening in 1910 until the B Station's demolition in 1986, they collectively operated from the early days of electricity generation in the United Kingdom, through the industry's nationalisation, and until a decade before its privatisation.
The Stella power stations were a pair of now-demolished coal-fired power stations in the North East of England that were a landmark in the Tyne valley for over 40 years. The stations stood on either side of a bend of the River Tyne: Stella South power station, the larger, near Blaydon in Gateshead, and Stella North power station near Lemington in Newcastle. Their name originated from the nearby Stella Hall, a manor house close to Stella South that by the time of their construction had been demolished and replaced by a housing estate. They operated from shortly after the nationalisation of the British electrical supply industry until two years after the Electricity Act of 1989, when the industry passed into the private sector.
Staiths South Bank is a housing development in Gateshead, England, designed in collaboration with fashion designers Wayne & Gerardine Hemingway.
The Tyne Valley Line is a 58-mile (93 km) route, linking Newcastle upon Tyne with Hexham and Carlisle, England. The line follows the course of the River Tyne through Tyne and Wear and Northumberland. Five stations and two viaducts on the route are listed structures.
Derwenthaugh Coke Works was a coking plant on the River Derwent near Swalwell in Gateshead. The works were built in 1928 on the site of the Crowley's Iron Works, which had at one time been the largest iron works in Europe. The coke works was closed and demolished in the late 1980s, and replaced by Derwenthaugh Park.
The Brandling Junction Railway was an early railway in County Durham, England. It took over the Tanfield Waggonway of 1725 that was built to bring coal from Tanfield to staiths on the River Tyne at Dunston. The Brandling Junction Railway itself opened in stages from 1839, running from Gateshead to Wearmouth and South Shields. Wearmouth was regarded at the time as the "Sunderland" terminal.
The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway (N&CR) was an English railway company formed in 1825 that built a line from Newcastle upon Tyne on Britain's east coast, to Carlisle, on the west coast. The railway began operating mineral trains in 1834 between Blaydon and Hexham, and passengers were carried for the first time the following year. The rest of the line opened in stages, completing a through route between Carlisle and Gateshead, south of the River Tyne in 1837. The directors repeatedly changed their intentions for the route at the eastern end of the line, but finally a line was opened from Scotswood to a Newcastle terminal in 1839. That line was extended twice, reaching the new Newcastle Central Station in 1851.
Dunston is particularly known for wooden coal staiths, first opened in 1893 as a structure for loading coal from the North Durham coalfield onto ships. In the 1920s, 140,000 tons of coal per week were loaded from the staiths, and they continued to be used until the 1970s. They were also a shipping point for coke produced at the nearby Norwood Coke Works, as well as pencil pitch manufactured at the Thomas Ness Tar Works using by-products from the Norwood plant and the Redheugh Gasworks. Throughout their working life, motive power for shunting wagons on the staiths and in their extensive sidings known as the Norwood Coal Yard came in the form of locomotives from Gateshead MPD. The staiths' output gradually declined with the contraction of the coal industry, and they were finally closed and partially dismantled in 1980. Now redundant, the railway lines leading to the staiths were lifted, finally allowing the demolition of several low bridges that had become a nuisance to bus operators by limiting the routes available to double-deckers in the area. For many years, the men who worked on the staiths, known as teemers and trimmers, had their own room in the nearby Dunston Excelsior Club. For anyone not employed in the club or on the staiths, access to the room was strictly by invite only, and the staithesmen held a reputation for unceremoniously ejecting anyone who fell foul of this rule.
