At the Quayside 80 years ago
COUNTLESS photographs have been taken from this vantage point down the years.
We’re looking at Newcastle’s famous Quayside Sunday market as viewed from the Tyne Bridge.
This particular image appeared in the Chronicle exactly 80 years ago - Monday July 18, 1938 showing the scenes at the previous day’s market.
For many of us, born and bred in the region, a visit to the bustling market in its dramatic setting next to the River Tyne and in the shadow of the great bridges is a rite of passage.
For the folk going about their daily business in Newcastle 80 years ago, storm clouds were gathering.
Only 20 years after the end of World War I, there were growing fears of another conflict.
Nazi Germany had begun to flex its considerable muscle.
Jewish people were being systematically persecuted, and Germany had annexed Austria in March that year while the world simply looked on.
Now Hitler had designs on Czechoslovakia.
Desperate to avoid war, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain travelled to Munich in September 1938, before famously declaring: “I have returned from Germany with peace for our time.”
But there would not be peace. A year later Britain was at war with Germany.
Away from the wider ebb and flow of epoch-defining events, Newcastle’s Quayside Market has a long history with its own ups and downs.
The Chronicle reported in 2007 on a major relaunch after it began to struggle for trade.
Thankfully today, the Quayside is busy with stalls and shoppers on Sundays.
The market was first mentioned in records in 1736, but is thought to date from centuries earlier.
It was one of many in the old town of Newcastle, including the Bigg Market, Groat Market, Flesh Market, Cloth Market, White Cross Market, Herb Market, Fish Market and Greenmarket.
In the early 18th century the Quayside Market stretched from the old Tyne Bridge (where the Swing Bridge is today) to Sandgate (near where the Millennium Bridge is today).
It would have been an exciting mix of market stalls, racing tipsters and fairground attractions.
In Victorian times, fortune tellers, escapologists, and strongman acts would have pulled in the Quayside crowds.
It’s well worth a visit in 2018.