Then and Now: Gateshead 100 years ago
WE step back to central Gateshead in the early years of the last century.
We’re looking at St Joseph’s RC church on High Street West.
Today, the church is very much still there, the savings bank and the houses on the right have gone, and the mode of transportation is somewhat different.
In the older picture postcard a tram is trundling down the street. A hundred years on, the busy Gateshead Interchange with its Metros and buses is in full swing.
The postcard notes that the church sits on the corner of Bensham Road.
Bensham, of course, is an area of Gateshead with a fascinating history.
Over the centuries, its story has been shaped by wealthy landowners, plague victims, hardworking Tyneside families, and Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.
Today, Bensham remains a busy suburb for families who work in and around Tyneside, and it houses a community of around 5,000 Orthodox Jews.
Bensham started out life as a desirable area for the middle and upper classes to live, away from the grime and noise of industrial Gateshead.
Later, it was one of the first areas where Tyneside flats were developed - in fact, their creation has been attributed to a Gateshead builder named William Affleck who lived in Bensham.