A timeless Newcastle city centre view
TODAY’S main image from the turn of the last century is one of those that most of us would love to slip into - if just for a while.
What price a stroll around the car-free streets of old Newcastle to take in its long-vanished sights and sounds?
Back in the real world, our 2018 photo shows roadworks, scaffolding and heavy traffic on a much busier St Nicholas Street.
In the centre of the photograph is the cathedral church of the same name. Its own rich history goes hand in hand with Newcastle’s.
St Nicholas is the patron saint of over 250 towns worldwide and 120 causes.
The earliest church on the site was probably constructed in around 1091, not long after the stone castle was built next door.
The Lantern Tower of the cathedral was constructed in 1448 and for hundreds of years it was once of the main navigation aids for ships sailing up the River Tyne.
Over 196ft (almost 60m) high, in the early 19th century, one writer said it was “one of the noblest and most admired structures that adorn our island”.
In 1644, during the English Civil War, the Lord Mayor of Newcastle, John Marley, called the bluff of the besieging Scottish forces, and imprisoned Scottish troops in the Lantern Tower, thereby ensuring it wasn’t targeted by enemy cannon.
There have been bells in the tower since the 1390s. There are currently 12 bells which are rung regularly.
One of the many monuments inside the cathedral is to Admiral Lord Collingwood, hero of the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. He was born on Side, Newcastle, and both baptised and married in the church.
The Cathedral has hosted various royalty over the centuries. In 1503, Princess Margaret (sister of the future Henry VIII) stopped here to worship on her way to marry King James IV of Scotland. King Charles I also came to church here in 1646 during his ‘imprisonment’ at the nearby Anderson Place during the Scottish occupation of the city in the English Civil War. Most recently, Queen Elizabeth dispensed Royal Maundy from the Cathedral in 1990.
The place of worship was simply the church of St Nicholas up until 1882 when it was bestowed cathedral status by Queen Victoria. It was then that Newcastle became a city - although for many of us, of course, it’s still known as “the town”, or even “the Toon”.