From a bank to favourite city bar

ONE hundred and fourteen years have passed since our main image was captured.

But in many ways the scene remains unchanged today.

We’re looking at the magnificent newly-constructed Collingwood Buildings on Collingwood Street, Newcastle.

It’s 1903 and the new premises have been built on the site of an old city pub called the Wellington.

Collingwood Buildings were conceived in 1899 by architects Oliver, Leeson & Wood.

Originally meant to be a hotel, it was taken over during its construction by Barclays Bank with the work being completed by architects Cackett & Burns Dick.

The photograph was taken for Waring & Gillow who were responsible for the mahogany fittings.

If Barclays with its magnificent marbled interior did its banking business here for the bulk of the last century, the Grade II-listed building has had different uses in more recent times.

At the turn of the millennium it housed a short-lived restaurant called Cafe Chinois.

But since the early-2000s, it’s been home to one of the city’s favourite bars, Revolution.

One wonders what the folk of Edwardian Newcastle - strolling along the quiet car-free roads would have made of the 21st century’s so-called ‘diamond strip’.

Today this area is home to the city’s hippest nightspots. As well as Revolution, every weekend sees the trendy young things of Tyneside flock to the likes of Perdu, House of Smith, Florita’s and Madame Koo.

I imagine you wouldn’t be welcome in any of these spots wearing a 1903-style cloth cap!

Our magnificent pictures comes from a new book Lost England, 1870-1930, by Philip Davies, Atlantic Publishing.

Featuring over 3,000 photographs from the Historic England archive, Lost England explores how England was transformed at the turn of the 20th century from sleepy villages and ancient market towns into a powerhouse of sprawling industrial and manufacturing cities.

Newcastle is just one of the locations featured.

Barclays Bank, Collingwood Street, Newcastle, 1903

The Wellington, Collingwood Street, Newcastle, c1900

Inside Barclays Bank, Collingwood Street, Newcastle, 1903

NOSTALGIA DAVE MORTON recalls the people and places of the North East @DaveSMorton Newcastle Chronicle - History EMAIL: david.morton.editorial@ncjmedia.co.uk TELEPHONE: 0191 2016437 WRITE TO: Dave Morton, Nostalgia Editor, The Chronicle, Groat Market,...

Collingwood Buildings, Collingwood Street, Newcastle, 1903 - from the book Lost England, 1870-1930, by Philip Davies, Atlantic Publishing

Collingwood Buildings, Collingwood Street, Newcastle, 2017