Our home of five decades
Newcastle United, started work in the old Kemsley House, “headhunted as a kid from the Hexham Courant”.
He returned to the new Thomson House in 1966, after four years in Fleet Street, to cover Newcastle United for the Chronicle.
“My first job was covering the World Cup but it was a great time because Newcastle had just been promoted to the old First Division and they would then qualify for Europe and go on to win the Fairs Cup.
“It was the Swinging Sixties for music and football and a wonderful time. I’ve covered Newcastle ever since and they’ve never won another solitary thing.
“Back then Thomson House was a vibrant building producing three papers with editions round the clock.
“Compositors were the all-powerful guys but there was an excitement about the days of hot metal.”
John remembers returning from St James’ Park after a match and finding queues for the football Pink, sometimes containing the words he had phoned over just minutes earlier. He says: “Thomson House at that time was the heartbeat of the city because it reflected everything that was going on.” Gibbo remembers going for a game of snooker with Terry McDermott and Supermac (Malcolm Macdonald) in the pub next door and then bringing them into the office for an exclusive interview, there being no TV-instigated press conferences in those days. Avril Deane, women’s editor on The Journal for years, likewise has happy memories of Thomson House – the “big clunky typewriters”, the smoking, the frequent visits to the pub and the joy of your ‘by line’ on a story – “the greatest honour you could have”. She remembers venturing to the top of the building on hot days to enjoy “a magnificent rooftop view of the city”. In the days before the word ‘celebrity’ was widely used, famous people would often pop in to be interviewed. “I particularly remember Avril Deane The printing press at Thomson House in the 1980s Colleen McCullough, Australian author of The Thorn Birds, calling in one wintry evening to the back entrance of Thomson House.
“She was wearing a backpack, a big hat (minus corks) and really stout shoes and we sat in a dingy office to do the interview and she simply lit up the room with her enthusiasm, gratitude and zest for life.”
Avril also remembers the Thomson House garage, where the cars used by reporters and photographers were kept up a ramp.
Getting them up or down the ramp “was the most terrifying manoeuvre known to man, as you had to drive blind at the top of the ramp.
“It was therefore very important to make friends with the Chronicle van drivers waiting for their bundles of papers, as if I asked very nicely they would either bring the car down or take it back up for me.”
Time now, though, for a new era of adventures and memories at our new home overlooking Percy Street, Blackett Street and Old Eldon Square.
Our new address will be ncjMedia, 2nd Floor, Eldon Court, Percy Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7JB. All staff phone numbers and email addresses will remain the same. The main switchboard number will remain 0191 232 7500.