10 fun facts: Old Eldon Square
IF you didn’t already know, ncjMedia has just moved from Newcastle’s Groat Market to smart new premises in Eldon Square.
We’re settling in nicely and it’s business as usual, but to mark our move, we look at the history of our new home in 10 facts.
The story of Eldon Square began long before it became best-known as a citycentre shopping mall in the mid-1970s.
Here goes...
■1. Old Eldon Square was built between 1825-31 as Newcastle’s old town centre underwent wholesale redevelopment. Part of the north-facing side of the old Town Wall - along what would become Blackett Street - was demolished to make way for the ambitious project.
■2. Designed by architect Thomas Oliver, with some input by John Dobson, the fine three-sided terrace was built, largely by the renowned Richard Grainger.
■3. The Georgian project consisted of 25 high-class terraced houses - built in Palladium style - with smooth stone fronts and first-floor cast-iron balconies surrounding a large private railed garden.
■4. Eldon Square was named after the first Earl of Eldon who served as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain in the early 18th century. Born in Newcastle as John Scott, he had attended the Royal Grammar School, and famously eloped with Bessie Surtees.
■5. The railed-off central area had already been opened up by 1923 when the World War I memorial of St George and the Dragon - made of Portland stone and bronze - was unveiled by wartime field marshal, Earl Hague. Decades later, the pleasant open space would, for a while, become a magnet for Goths and rockers, earning it the nickname ‘hippy green’.
■6. One of the most bizarre Eldon Square events unfolded on a Saturday afternoon in March, 1954. The streets were packed with shoppers when amazingly, in a scene resembling a comedy farce, three bears emerged from Morden Street car park and came loping into Eldon Square. People screamed and ran for their lives. The bears had, in fact, been performing at the Palace Theatre in Newgate Street and escaped from a circus lorry. They were soon recaptured.
■7. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the northern and western terraces of old Eldon Square were demolished, along with shops on Blackett Street and Newgate Street to make way for a new state-of-the-art shopping complex.
■8. Eldon Square Shopping Centre opened on March 16, 1976. It was an instant hit. The Chronicle reported: “Eldon Square’s shopping bag army has set the cash tills ringing up an economic extravaganza, and store owners are rubbing their hands with glee.”
■9. A year later, it was officially opened by the Queen and Prince Philip, as thousands looked on, during the Royals’ Silver Jubilee tour.
■10. By 2016, when it was celebrating its 40th anniversary, the complex was attracting 35 million visitors a year to its 150 stores and restaurants across 130,000 square metres of floor space.