Appliance of science in the city centre
OUR photographs reflect the ever-changing outlook of Newcastle city centre. We see the long-gone Marlborough Crescent bus station, and the 21st century building that replaced it, the Centre For Life.
Our photographs were taken by keen local photographer and friend of the Chronicle, Trevor Ermel.
His work spans the last five decades and charts the transformation that has affected urban Tyneside and the River Tyne.
Our main image, on the left, was captured in 1976.
Trevor says: “The station was mainly used by Northern and United buses with services to the South and West of the city.
“On view are buses heading for Bishop Auckland, Hexham, Chopwell and High Spen.
“The bus station later spent its final few years without the overall roof.”
Indeed, Marlborough Crescent station, built in the late-1920s, served bus passengers travelling into North West Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and all points west along the Tyne Valley, including Carlisle, for around 60 years.
The oldest of the city’s stations, the last bus set off from here in the late 1980s.
Elsewhere in the city, bus services from Worswick Street station (which operated between 1929 and 1998) would generally head to the South of the region.
And buses to the North and East started their journeys at Haymarket station, which is still going strong, although the old station was demolished and totally rebuilt at a cost of £1million. It reopened in April 1996.
Today, there is no trace of Marlborough Crescent bus station.
Our modern image shows the building that sprung up on the site of the station and a patch of derelict industrial land next to Newcastle Central Station.
The Centre For Life opened on May 27, 2000, at a cost of £25m.
The science village employs 600 people, and incorporates Life Science Centre, an award-winning visitor attraction and educational facility.
There are research facilities housing biotechnology companies and an internationally-renowned institute belonging to Newcastle University.
There are also NHS clinics dealing with fertility and regenerative medicine therapies.
What a difference 42 years makes.