Brought terror to the streets City enjoys taste of the High life
YOU might well have trod the winding length of Newcastle’s High Bridge at one time or another. Running east to west from Pilgrim Street to the Bigg Market, and bisected by Grey Street, the lane (in normal times) plays host to an ever-changing array of boutiques, tattoo parlours, micro pubs and cafes.
There is also a new hotel called Motel One.
In the 1960s it was even dubbed ‘Newcastle’s answer to London’s Carnaby Street’ by the local press.
For those of us who enjoy a pint now and again, there are three venerable city-centre boozers, starting from the Bigg Market end - the Beehive, The Duke of
Wellington, and the Bacchus. The Duke of Wellington, especially, has a long, interesting history.
One of its managers, the 52-stone “Scottish giant” William Campbell, died there in 1878 and his over-sized coffin had to be removed from upstairs by a crane.
Thousands lined the route of the cortege as it made its way to Jesmond Cemetery.
The book Down Our Streets, by Jack and John Leslie, explains the origins of the street’s name, High Bridge.
“Until the valley of the Lort Burn which ran from Castle Leazes to the Tyne was filled in, two bridges - the Upper Dean Bridge and the Nether Dean Bridge - spanned it.
“High Bridge marks the site of the Upper Dean Bridge which connected Pilgrim
Street with the Bigg Market.” The steep dene of the Lort Burn was one of several waterways that flowed through the old town of Newcastle down to the River Tyne.
By the beginning of the 19th century, it had essentially become an open sewer. Meat waste from the old Flesh Market was also thrown into the burn providing, no doubt, a rich aroma in the area.
In 1827 it was described as a “vast nauseous hollow, equally unhealthy and inconvenient.”
Richard Grainger’s radical plans for reshaping Newcastle were put into effect in 1834. One of those plans would be to fill in the Lort Burn valley with rubbish, rubble and topsoil and create a new street - Dean Street.